


Bang Bang Beef Keef

by Bang Bang Beef Keef (kelamorrison)



Series: Beef Keef and Sharpshooter [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Anal Sex, Ass to Mouth, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Bottom Lance, Canon Universe, Dildos, Dry Humping, Gay Disaster Keith (Voltron), Klance smut, Kosmo is best wingman, Lance is 18, M/M, Masterbation, Oral Sex, Plot With Porn, Plot With Smut, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Season Seven canon universe, Some Fluff, Top Keith, You can't convince me this didn't happen, klance, klangst, lance bottoms for now, mutual masterbation, psychedelic lubricant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-08-21 19:25:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 28,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16582583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kelamorrison/pseuds/Bang%20Bang%20Beef%20Keef
Summary: Lance and Keith banged, but Keith snuck off to the Blade during the night. Struggling with realizing his attraction to Keith, mixed with his feelings of rejection, Lance takes a shower and tries to rub away his problems.It's a long time before Keith returns to the team and it's uncertain where they stand until one night when Kosmo teleports Keith into Lance's Lion...





	1. Don't go chasing waterfalls

**Author's Note:**

> Part 2 in the Series Beef Keef and Sharpshooter! Go read Unload Sharpshooter first! Or don't. I'm not your space mom.

Lance woke up with his head filled up with a name:

Keith  
So much had happened last night with Keith, he couldn’t even process it. His name was tattooed across his brain, not ready to sink in.

Speaking of Keith, Lance groped for him with sleep filled eyes and weak arms. Honestly, when Lance didn’t immediately bump against him, it’s a mystery as to why he kept searching. It was a tiny bed and it’s not like Keith could be hiding in a corner even if he was quite small. Lance’s eyes popped open and visually confirmed that Keith was no longer in bed with him. In Keith’s bed… Keith was no longer in Keith’s bed, but Lance was.

Lance sat up and looked around the room, feeling like he was missing something. Like Keith who was maybe at his desk and definitely still inside the room? Two sweeps of the room using the full range of his neck twist confirmed no. Lance peaked over the side of the bed just in case Keith had decided to sleep on the floor due to Lance kicking him throughout the night or something. He wasn’t there.

Lance tentatively lay back down and stared up at the ceiling, feeling like he was missing something (on top of missing Keith.) Lance started to question everything. Had last night not happened? Or had he at least dreamed the sex part? No… He was completely naked, sore, and dehydrated. That part had happened and yet Keith was no longer in the bed. Maybe he just had to pee and Lance had woken up at the sound of the door shutting? Maybe he’d be right back.

Lance waited ten minutes…

Maybe Keith had to go number two?

He waited another twenty…

Shower? They’d gotten pretty dirty last night.

He waited an extra ten then he waited out the rest of the hour just to be safe. It was time to face the fact that Keith wasn’t coming back. This was difficult because Lance didn’t know how he felt about last night and now he was supposed to figure out how he felt about Keith sneaking out in the morning? That’s two whole things to figure out! Who was he? Pidge?

Why had Keith left without saying goodbye? Was the sex that bad? No, of course it wasn’t bad, he’d made Keith cum three times last night so that wasn’t it. So perhaps the reason was less about him being driven away and more about him being called away? Keith’s Blade suit was missing from the room so that likely answered the question as to where he went. Maybe there was a Blade emergency and that’s why he left without waking up Lance or leaving a note.

Lance got up, not loving the sensation of standing. He couldn’t keep lying there, wondering if he’d been rejected or not. It was well into morning (or what they had chosen to pretend was morning despite the fact that there wasn’t do concept of daytime in deep space) on the Castleship and if he continued to be a no show, anyone could come looking for him in his last known location only to find him naked as a jay bird inside Keith’ bed with no Keith.

Lance put on his pajama’s even though they were dirty from when Keith had used them as a love juice napkin. It’s not like he had much choice. The only other clothes in this room belonged to Keith and if he walked out there in Keith’s black, black, and more black outfit, people would have questions. 

Lance found Keith’s discarded t-shirt on the floor. He picked it up and, acting on pure impulse, he lifted it to his face and smelt it. Nope. Shouldn’t have done that. It smelt like Keith, like post-battle sweat, giant eyes, electrifying arousal, and just a hint of crushing rejection. Lance folded up the shirt and tucked it inside the drawer under the bed so Keith would have something to wear when he came back… If he came back…

Lance kept himself busy by tidying up the room. He put the wipes, condoms, and lube in his drawstring bag then turned off his sound machine and added that and his sleep mask to the bag. He checked around the room to make sure no pieces of condom wrapper or wipes had been missed when collecting them for the garbage. Last, he went to make the bed, but decided he could not in good conscious make it with the sheets as filthy as they’d left them. Lance stripped the bed instead because he had to put these sheets in the washer. He just had to.

Lance threw his bag over his shoulder, tucked his pillow and blanket under in his armpit, and bundled up the sheets in his arms then paused at the door. He listened, making sure he wasn’t about to walk right into one of the others. Silence. Lance walked out the door and made it five steps before running into Shiro. Lance froze.

“Hey Lance, how’d it go last night with Keith?” asked Shiro with a casual tone.

Lance choked. “What?”

“Did he calm down?” asked Shiro. Oh, so we was asking about Keith’s panic attack and not asking how the sex was…

“Yeah uh… he uh released a lot of tension.”

Shiro’s gaze fell on what Lance was carrying in his arms.

“I was just taking his sheets for a walk.” Shiro raised an eyebrow. Nope. That’s not a real thing that people do. “…To the laundry so when he comes back his room is all clean. It’s a nice thing that I’m doing.” And not at all suspicious.

“Oh, did Keith leave?”

“Yes. Unless you just saw him then no, and where would that have been exactly?”

“I haven’t seen him,” said Shiro. “Do you know where he went?”

“To the Blade,” said Lance. “I think he got called in. Is that something Coran may have heard about? The Blade calling?”

“You’d have to ask him,” said Shiro. “Actually I was just coming to get you. We’re having a meeting in ten about what to do with the whole ‘Lotor situation.’”

“Right,” said Lance, hoping maybe his ill feeling over Lotor wanting to be their ally would overpower his ill feeling over Keith. “I just need to visit the laundry room and take a quick shower and I won’t be anymore than five, ten minutes late. Promise.” Lance rushed off before Shiro could say anything.

Lance threw the sheets into the washing machine in the Castleship laundry room and pushed far more buttons than seemed necessary. Surprisingly the washing machine was the one piece of Castle Altean tech he could use. Lance dropped his stuff off in his own bedroom then grabbed his shower caddy with his collection of alien soaps, balms, and moisturizers, and headed to the showers.

Lance allowed himself to relax underneath the stream of warm water. He let the smells of his various products remind him that this was his ‘forget the universe time.’ The mix of scents tickled his nose, all smelling as close to Earth fruits as he could muster, but just a tiny bit off, just a little bit wrong. Like sex with Keith…

Lance pushed away the thought, annoyed to be thinking of a problem when it was his self-care time. But to be fair, it did remind him he needed to clean out his asshole. With a reluctant sigh, he turned up the water pressure then spread open his ass cheeks and positioned himself so the stream hit just the spot. While he was bent like this he noticed something - a pair of red pajama pants hanging on one of the towel hooks. It made Lance’s gut tighten.

So Keith had time to shower before he left, but not to write a note?

Lance stood up straight, hugging his arms across his chest. This tiny little thing, seeing Keith’s pajama pants made him feel so angry and disappointed and hurt. At least from the waist up as his penis had not gotten the memo.  
His head was a mess of resentment and confusion, his heart felt sick, his stomach felt sore, but his dick was rock hard.

“No, don’t do that,” he said, speaking to it. “Keith’s a jerk and we’re mad at him.” Lance glanced back up at the pants. “No matter how sexy he is.”

A wave of flashbacks hit him, swirling around inside his head like his mind was seducing him with memories. If Lance were being honest (like real slumber-party, besties-forever, cross-my-heart and-hope-to-die honest) the moment he’d walked into the bedroom and seen Keith in those red pajama bottoms, he’d checked him out. The material was so thin and loose that he could make out the outline of Keith’s peas and carrot and then when Keith had turned around and he saw that cute butt… Lance hadn’t meant to find Keith attractive and he’d definitely shoved that feeling away the moment it had popped up, but if he were continuing to be honest, he’d noticed an attraction to Keith before… a lot. He never meant to feel attracted to Keith, it was something that seemed to keep coming up. Like his boner.

“This is a public space,” Lance said, further attempting to calm his dick down. “And I’m already late for a Team Voltron meeting.” But then didn’t the fact that everyone was in the meeting meaning no one was going to walk in on him…?

“Fine. You win,” said Lance as he went into his shower caddy. Hidden almost the alien beauty products was a bottle of non waterproof lube, which he didn’t really need to hide since it’s not like anyone could read any of these bottle’s labels anyway.

A few drops of lube in his palm, and Lance ran his hand down the length of his cock and let out a sigh. It was immediately satisfying and instantly not enough. He didn’t want to think about Keith, never wanted to think about Keith while jerking off, but his brain had its own plans. This time he had a whole prepared script’s worth of juicy flashbacks to work with.

Keith dry humping his ass then pulling down his pj pants and rubbing his cock between his butt cheeks… Keith’s own hands jerking Lance off… 

No, no, no, Keith had left Lance! Those memories were tainted by abandonment, no matter how hot. So fucking hot.

Keith rolling Lance onto his back and pinning his arms above his head as he gave him his first kiss from a boy… Finally being allowed to run his hands over Keith’s amazing body… Keith taking his cock into his mouth…

Lance moaned and slowed down his pace. He’d nearly cum right there and he’d only just begun his highlight reel from last night.

Keith’s cute, frustrated face when he couldn’t figure out how to fit Lance’s entire cock in his mouth without gagging… Keith licking Lance’s cock like a popsicle… Sixty-nining with Keith and making him squirm… What was that thing Keith did with his hand when he was jerking him off? He flipped his grip?

Lance flipped his grip on his cock so the thumb pointed in and the pinky pointed out. Now it felt how he remembered it. It felt like Keith’s hand, which surged Lance towards that orgasm squeezing in a last couple dirty flashbacks as he slipped over the edge.

Keith’s tongue licking his ass… Keith’s cock inside Lance’s ass…

Lance willed himself not to speak Keith’s name, but still it came creaking out of him as he came. Cumming standing up was a different experience than being horizontal. It made Lance’s toes curl as he leaned into the tiled wall. It was a good orgasm, but it was nothing like last night. Last night had been incredible.

Spooning Keith, smelling his hair, kissing him…

If only Lance had stuck to flashing back to the dirty stuff. Why did he have to keep going post-orgasm? Why did these warm images surface in his brain like dessert after a satisfying meal. He didn’t ask for the dessert menu.

Lance turned off the tap, grateful shower wanking meant no clean up. He went to get dressed, hoping he wasn’t too late to the meeting only to discover he’d missed it entirely. Without him, they’d decided to give Lotor a chance.


	2. Wham! Bam! Thank you Lance!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance journals about his feels while Keith is away. It doesn't help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is no canon timeline for these events. This is loose guess. Enjoy!

Day 1 PWBTYL (Post-Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Lance)

I banged Keith yesterday. I don’t know how I feel about it. I’ve realized I can’t talk to anyone on the team about it. I mean, Hunk and Pidge make fun of me anytime I try to talk about girls. I doubt Coran would work since I’m still confused as to what Altean sex is like. I do not want Allura to ever find out! I would maybe talk to Shiro, but he’s been off lately plus I don’t know if he knows Keith is gay and I don’t want to out Keith. I guess that’s the same concern for talking to anybody.

So, seeing as I have no one to talk to, I’m going to journal my thoughts. I found this program in the Red Lion where I can type in English so that’s where I’m writing this. I’m guessing Pidge must’ve installed it as like a Captain’s Log or something.

PIDGE IF YOU ARE READING THIS, STOP! STOP RIGHT NOW! ALSO, I WAS 100% JOKING ABOUT BANGING KEITH AND THIS WHOLE THING IS A PRANK, BUT ALSO DON’T READ ANYMORE!

Pidge, are you still reading? No? Okay, we’re good.

Anyway, the sex was amazing. It was everything I’d always hoped sex would be, but didn’t quite live up to. Was that because they were female? Am I gay? Or was it because I didn’t know them? Am I “into” Keith, like more than just attraction?

PIDGE, YOU BEST HAVE STOPPED READING BY NOW I SWEAR…

I feel like I could answer these questions better if I could see Keith. Or at least hear his voice. I mean he’s probably going to call me, right? What kind of monster fucks someone and doesn’t call the next day, right?

 

Day 2 PWBTYL

Um, haven’t had that phone call yet. Gonna go ahead and assume Keith’s on a Blade mission and can’t call me.

 

Day 5 PWBTYL

Keith’s a jerk and he’s never going to call!

 

Day 10 PWBTYL

Like seriously. At this point he better be dead!

 

Day 11 PWBTYL

I’m so scared he’s dead.

 

Day 12 PWBTYL

I miss him.

 

Day 13 PWBTYL

No, I don’t.

 

Day 21 PWBTYL

I can’t stop thinking about that night with Keith. I think… I’m gay?

 

Day 22 PWBTYL

Nope. False alarm. I thought about Allura last night… to completion. So I am straight with a blip. A Keith shaped blip…

 

Day 23 PWBTYL

No, gay. Definitely gay. Get out of my head, Keith!

 

Day 24 PWBTYL

Okay, so I talked to Shiro and he thinks I could be bisexual? It still feels weird since up until Keith I only liked girls, but then it fits better than gay or straight. I dunno…

Oh, also Pidge found her dad and Lotor killed Zarkon. Should I be chronicling that kind of stuff here?

 

Day 29 PWBTYL

Something weird happened today, non-Keith related. (I know, right?) We travelled to the astral plane through our Lions (like… what is that even?) And Shiro was yelling something at me, but I couldn’t understand. Later he said he didn’t remember doing it. Pretty weird. I dunno.

 

Day 40 PWBTYL

Scratch everything I said before! I was confused and I wasn’t thinking straight… heh, I see what I did there… Anyway, none of it counts or matters.

PIDGE, IF YOU ARE READING THIS THEN ALL OF THAT BEFORE WAS A PRANK, GET IT? A PRANK! THAT SAID, STOP READING AT THIS POINT! YOUR STUPID FUCKING CAPTAIN’S LOG PROGRAM WON’T LET ME DELETE SO I CAN’T DELETE WHAT WAS CLEARLY A PRANK!

Something happened with Allura today and I can now say without a shadow of a doubt that I’m in love with her. Like I just... I just saved her life! Her Lion was about to get electrocuted so I shoved her out of the way and took the hit instead and then I… Well, I died so boo, but then Allura used her alien Princess powers to bring me back to life!

It was amazing, the way she looked at me when I woke up, er ,came back to life? We shared something special there. We bonded… oh… shit…

 

Day 47 PWBTYL

Allura spends all her time working with Lotor. I guess… she never really felt what I felt…

Why does this keep happening to me?

 

Day 51 PWBTYL

I tricked Coran into contacting that Bladey guy… What’s his name? Koli…man? Whatever. I told Coran it was a human emergency (props to him for not questioning this obvious lie) and I needed to speak to Keith right away and Coran just went ahead and called them up. But here’s the thing: Koli-guy hasn’t heard from Keith in weeks. I’m freaking out! What if Keith’s dead?

No one else is concerned. Not even Shiro. I feel really alone in this.

 

Day 53 PWBTYL

SPANISH! I could’ve been writing in SPANISH! That’s how I could’ve hidden this from Pidge. I’m dumb.

 

Day 59 PWBTYL

Yo lo extraño mucho.

 

Day 61 PWBTYL

I don’t know where to start. A lot happened. A lot! In like a day Keith came back and told us Lotor had been lying to us (Ha! Called it!) and low key committing genocide (that one was surprising.) Then Shiro tried to kill us and we had to fight Lotor inside the Quintessence Field then we had to blow up the Castleship then I did a full on Honey I Shrunk the Kids and now we’re heading back to Earth. 

One thing I am not even going to mention here is how Keith brushed me off when he came back, because who cares? Not this guy! Plus the Shiro who helped me “realize I was bi” turned out to be an evil clone so like, that pep talk doesn’t even count. Back in the closet I go. No, no, not in closet. I was never in the closet. Why can’t I erase anything?!

Doesn’t have time for me… Like I care! Stupid Keith.


	3. I know you. I fucked with you once upon a dream!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is back and he's a hottie with a body, but he's been acting like nothing ever happened between them. Lance tries to "take care of himself," but he gets interrupted by a late night visitor.

It only took a few days for the “Road Trip” high to wear off and the journey to become monotonous. Turns out, the universe is mostly empty if you’re not using a wormhole to pop around it. By a week’s end Lance discovered he was capable of pretending nothing had ever happened between him a Keith. It was simple with Keith taking the oblivious lead. That made sense considering Keith had experienced a whole extra two years of time passing. For him it was ancient history and Lance was learning to move passed it.

Lance didn’t let on any jealousy when Keith’s main concern was Shiro or when Keith left the team to backup Acxa. Nor did he let his face show what he was thinking when he watched Keith and Acxa flirt right in front of him. He just picked a spot on the ground and stared at it. It didn’t matter that Lance was fairly certain Keith had outright said he was gay on that faithful night. Maybe he’d gotten it wrong. Lance had gotten a lot of things wrong…

It didn’t matter. He was letting it go. It helped that they hadn’t touched ground on a planet in six days so there was no opportunity to see Keith face to face. He’d become nothing more than a voice over a commlink. Yep, nothing more than a croaky, sexy voice invading his air space at any given moment, haunting him day by endless day. But that was fine. Lance was a survivor and at least his nights were quiet.

Lance lay on his cot in Red’s cargo hold, listening to the whirr of his sound machine. He missed the comforts of the Castleship. He missed his own bedroom and a proper bed. He missed having a real bathroom. The Lion’s toilet was just a seat with a hole and the shower was just a sink you could stand in with a hose… No, wait, those describe toilets and showers… The point is…! The point is they were different and they felt different. But it was okay because he was heading home. And Keith being different also didn’t matter for the same damn reason.

A sigh escaped Lance as he pulled off his sleep mask to check how many doboshes had passed since he started trying to sleep. Turns out, over a varga. He rolled to his side. It was insane that he could spend the entire day bored out of his mind, flying through nothingness, yawning every thirty ticks, looking forward to the moment he could sleep away the boredom, but then low and behold night finally came and he couldn’t sleep. He’d tried everything to get to sleep. Well… not everything…

Nothing like rubbing one out to give you the sleepies and Lance hadn’t gotten himself off since they left on this journey. It didn’t feel right doing it inside of Red as he was sentient and would maybe be aware of what he was doing? It felt disrespectful. He rolled to the other side. But then again… Pidge had said the journey home was going to take a year and half and Lance obviously wasn’t going to go that long without “polishing his bayard.” 

“Sorry about this, Red,” whispered Lance, sitting up. “Could you maybe not pay attention to this area for the next half hour or so? Appreciate it.”

Lance got up to search for his drawstring bag, sneaking around despite being the only one inside the Lion tonight. Apparently Lance snored so loud no one else was interested in bunking with him. It was bad, apparently. Spook the animals bad. But the benefit was he got his own space at night.

Groping in the dark, he found the bag he’d salvaged as they’d evacuated the Castleship and brought it back to bed with him. He’d lucked out and been able to acquire a few more items over the past couple months: A new lube that was a bit greasy, but he’d take it over the tire fire smelling one any day. Lance had also gotten a grab bag of different condoms, but hadn’t opened any to see what shapes he’d gotten. Last, he’d scored a dildo that came with a little cleaning spray. He’d never considered getting one before, but since that night with Keith he now knew he very much enjoyed anal play. 

Shopping for an alien dildo that was the right shape and size had been interesting. There was no universal standard for genitals as Lance had suspected from his condom collection. At one point he’d considered just asking Pidge to 3D print one to his specifications. To be fair, she probably would’ve done it without blinking an eye. Lance suspected she’d already made one for herself hence the need for lube. However, though he didn’t mind Pidge knowing he masterbated, he didn’t want her to know what exactly he was up to. There was friendship and then there was ‘knows you like it in the ass’ friendship. Lance wasn’t there yet.

Luckily, he’d been able to discreetly obtain a dildo that fell into the Goldilocks zone, not too big and not too small. It had a nice oblong shape with a handle and that very same night Lance became a satisfied customer.

He put the dildo back in the bag. He was looking for a solo quickie, not a one-man porn starring himself. He’d be good to Red and keep it simple. He hesitated over his lube choice. The Earth lube was running low and he liked to specifically save that for when he had a partner. He decided to try the greasy one since he wasn’t in the mood for the tire fire smell or the one that glided but didn’t feel wet and those were the only two left in the bag.

Lance reached under his blanket and freed his semi (his bag always got him excited.) A few drops of lube in his palm and he was ready. He glided his hand down his cock. A few strokes brought him to full hardness, but the sensation wasn’t enough to get him off. He missed porn. He’d watched some alien stuff once and it worked to a degree, but it wasn’t something he’d revisit. Like, he couldn’t even tell if it was a couple or a group scene, which was alarming. No, he’d need to rely on the good ol’ spank bank. Mentally he opened it up, but was sad to see only two files in there: Allura and Keith.

He didn’t even want to open that Allura file up. Maybe he was heartbroken still. Just when he’d thought they were getting close, Allura had turned all her attention to Lotor. He wasn’t mad about it, just hurt that she never saw in him what he saw in her. They were friends still, maybe even closer now and Lance was ready to accept that was it for them. It was time to delete her file from the spank bank, it was the right thing to do. He imagined taking that folder and dragging it to the trashcan in his mind. He should do the same with Keith’s…

The thing about Keith’s folder though is that while Allura’s was all imagined scenarios, Keith’s was filled with all the hot stuff they’d actually done together. Deleting it would be unfair to Keith. Like how he deleted their supposed “bonding moment” from his brain and now Keith was going to die mad about it. Lance let the folder be, but he was NOT going to open it and use it. He didn’t care if he could update the imagery with Keith’s new body…

Damn, bae came home looking like a snack. No, snack didn’t cover it. Keith was a full meal - entrée to dessert, beef to cake! But no, he was not going to jerkoff to Mr. Didn’t Happen. He wouldn’t give Beef Keef the satisfaction and he certainly wasn’t going to give himself the satisfaction… in that way.

“Alright imagination,” he muttered to himself, “Let’s make up someone new. Nice legs and a tight ass and full chest. Like pecs… No! Boobs!” Lance lifted the sheets so he could talk to his boner. “Can we please think of a girl this time? … No? Okay, we’ll make up a guy, but not Keith, okay? No Keith.”

Lance settled himself back down and relaxed, closing his eyes. Stroking himself felt nice, now to augment it by picturing the perfect guy: hair as black as coal, skin as pale as snow, lips as red as blood – Nope! Literally just picturing a male Snow White.

“C’mon man, get in the game,” muttered Lance, shimmying his shoulders to relax the muscles and rolling his neck back and forth. He knew what he was doing wrong. Masterbation time needed to be a safe space for whatever sick thoughts drifted through his head. If he wanted to bone a thicc, male Snow White then so be it. And he knew exactly what he’d do with Mr. Snow. He’d flipped him over and hit that from behind.

Soft sighs as suddenly it felt oh so good. Oh yeah, this was exactly the view he’d been craving. He pictured that booty bouncing as he fucked him in the ass. His mental eye drifted up that broad back then to that luscious raven black hair which was a little long in the back... Lance pictured running a hand up that back, grabbing that silky soft hair, and giving it a tug, wrenching back his head so he could see his face and yep, it was Keith. Of course it was Keith.

A moan pierced the quiet of the cargo bay. Suddenly it felt so good like all the nerve endings on his cock had finally woken up at the thought of pounding Keith in the ass. Lance had never topped Keith, this was pure imagination and wouldn’t it feel so good if it were real? If Keith allowed him to take him from behind, no begged for it. He had promised Lance all his firsts…

In him mind they held eye contact as Lance held him by the hair. “Lance..,” imaginary Keith sputtered. In reality, Lance picked up his pace, building close to orgasm. Unable to hold it back, the name escaped his lips, “Keith…”

ZAP! There was a flash of lightning and suddenly the cosmic doggo was standing in front of Lance’s bed! With Keith kneeling beside him!

“Keith!” cried Lance, jolting up to sitting and scrambling to make sure everything naughty was covered with this bunched up blanket (bag and boner.) “Wha-? Did I summon you?!”


	4. Love me tender

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance have a heart to heart then get frisky

“No! Sorry!” cried Keith, standing up, flushed with embarrassment. “I wanted to talk to you and I didn’t know how to do it beyond just coming over.” ZAP! And the wolf was gone, leaving Keith looking flustered.

“How about your hail me through the comlink on a private channel and ask if it’s okay to come over and then and only then do you ‘come over?’”

“Sorry! I’ll do that now.” Keith lifted his fingers to his lips to whistle for the puppers to return to him.

“No, don’t go!” cried Lance, coming off more eager than he wanted to.

“I’ll be back. I’ll just go and hail you and ask properly and then after I’ve been invited, I’ll come back.”

“Don’t you dare go anywhere, Keith! Not after last time when you left and you were gone two months my time and two years your time! Now sit down and tell me exactly what you came heer to say.” Lance swung his legs out over the side of the bed and smacked the space beside him with his hand.

Keith approached and sat down, further away than the suggested smack, looking awkward as all hell. Lance waited patiently until Keith finally started talking.

“I thought I needed to come up with the perfect thing to say before I came to talk to you,” said Keith.

Lance nodded. Keith didn’t continue.

“Wait… Did you say it already?”

Keith blushed. “No, I mean, I finally realized that if I wait until I have the perfect thing in mind then I’d never come to talk to you and it’s better to just say something rather than nothing.”

“I agree,” said Lance.

Keith was silent.

“Okay, again, do you think you’ve already said something? Am I spacing out and missing it?”

“No, I’m gathering my thoughts so hold on!” snapped Keith, standing up.

“Okay, sorry.” Lance softened his tone. “Just sit down and take all the time in the world.”

“No,” said Keith, shaking his head and beginning to pace. “Winging it was a bad plan. I need to restart.”

“Okay, restart,” said Lance, reassuringly.

“I’ll just go and hail you properly –”

“No,” said Lance, jumping up. “That’s not what I meant by restart. You don’t have to physically go.” Lance took hold of Keith’s shoulders to stop his pacing. Keith inhaled sharply, his feet stopping, his body turning to open up to Lance’s. Their eyes met and oh no…

His biceps felt so strong in Lance’s grip. There were so many differences in Keith that Lance hadn’t fully appreciated until he was close enough to touch him. He needed to look up now, not down, to meet his gaze as the boy had grown taller than him in their time apart. How old was Keith now? Twenty? Twenty-one? Could he buy Lance beer? That was a thought tangent that didn’t need to be explored. 

Changed only in experience, were those eyes of his. Logically Lance knew Keith’s eyes were a pale gray, but in the red LED lighting of Red’s cargo hold, they looked amethyst. Just stunningly beautiful. Lance was immediately in way over his head.

No, it did not help that Keith was wearing the exact same outfit he’d been wearing the night they’d gotten it on. Nor did it help that his black tee was no longer his size and was stretched out across his broad chest. It definitely did not help that Lance had started this conversation with a half-wood that was rapidly turning into a full wood while touching Keith and gazing into his eyes.

Lance dropped his arms and turned around, both to break the tension and to hide his erection. He cleared his throat and sat down on the bed, pulling the bunched up blanket over his lap to hide himself until he could calm the quiznak down. “Let’s just reset ourselves,” said Lance, calmly. “It’s gonna be okay. It’s just me.”

“Okay,” said Keith, letting out a puff of nervous air. “But I’m gonna just…” Keith grabbed a crate and moved it in front of Lance so he could sit there rather than on Lance’s bed. Their knees weren’t quite close enough to touch when he sat. Unfortunately, Keith still remained silent, but Lance was patient this time, realizing Keith wasn’t good at coming up with conversation on the spot.

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” admitted Keith. “So I’m worried I’m going to say the wrong thing.”

“Okay,” said Lance with a nod. “We can start there. I can tell you what I’m hoping to hear from you and then you can say what you’re hoping to hear from me and then maybe a conversation sparks from that.”

Keith gave a weak smile. “How are you so good at calming me down?”

“Because I’m your number two, your literal right hand man and…” Lance softened his voice as he said, “I do know you well enough to know this isn’t easy for you. You’re not good at putting yourself out there so I have sympathy for that.” Keith’s weak smile grew just a little bit softer. “That said,” continued Lance, “I want to hear that you’re sorry for leaving without saying anything. I was scared that you hated me and as time passed, I was scared you were dead.”

“I wasn’t dead,” said Keith.

“Keith, I contacted the Blades. They didn’t know where you were.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think that you would be so worried about me.”

“Why not, Keith? Worrying about you is exactly what someone who cares about you would do. And I wish you were more worried about me. I needed you to stay and help me sort out how I felt about being with you. I’ve been struggling for months with my sexuality. I had no one to talk to about it until I finally cracked and spoke to Shiro’s evil clone.”

“Wait,” said Keith, suddenly freaked out. “You told Shiro about us?”

“No, I was vague and said I was having sexual attraction to a male friend and… Quiznak! He might’ve thought I was hitting on him.” Lance felt a moment of panic then decided to let it go. “Eh. That clone died anyway.”

“No, Lance, that clone became Shiro and he kept the clone’s memories.”

“Well, crap dammit!” swore Lance. “Could I just have one gay man in my life that doesn’t hate me for thinking I want to jump their bones?”

“I don’t hate you. What makes you think I hate you?”

“Two months of radio silence followed by a week of you pretending like nothing happened,” said Lance.

“I know that looks bad, but what possible reason do you think I’d have for hating you? The last time I saw you I thanked you for helping me.”

“I thought maybe…” His eyes drifted to the ground. “I was worried you thought I took advantage of you.” Keith opened his mouth to respond, but Lance surged forward with his train of thought. “You were really shaken up earlier that night and though you seemed fine when we were messing around maybe your mental state wasn’t the best for consenting and when I thought back to everything we did it was mostly my ideas and it was all new to you and maybe I pushed you too far out of your comfort zone --”

“No, you didn’t,” said Keith, cutting into the rant. “You gave me every out plus a safe word. Lance, you were so kind to me that night and then to top it off you made all of my fantasies come true and the only thing I regret is leaving.”

“Then why did you leave?”

“Because I thought you’d hate me,” said Keith. “I was scared if I blew off my Blades mission you’d be mad at me in the morning or worse, pretend it never happened.”

Lance took a deep breath and blew it out. “Okay, I get where the fear of the second scenario is coming from, but hating you right out of the gate? I mean, I only started to worry you hated me after I hadn’t heard from you in weeks. What would make you think I would immediately start hating you?”

“I dunno. You hated me long before I even noticed you.”

“I hated you for not noticing me, dummy!” And the moment Lance shouted it, he knew this to be true.

“Oh… Oh?” Keith’s eyes went big as if he were just catching on. Honestly, Lance was only just catching on too. Finally an explanation for those years of resentment towards Keith was surfacing.

“But at the Garrison, whenever I tried to get you to notice me, you brushed me off just the same as last week when you returned to the Castleship. I held out my arms for a hug and you just brushed past me and said you didn’t have time for me.” Lance crossed his arms across his chest and realized when he said it out loud, how much that had stung.

“First of all, I was in a rush to warn you that Lotor was secretly a genocide committing monster and second, I never said I didn’t have time for you. I didn’t have time for you flirting with me in front of everyone the second I got back.”

“I was not flirting with you.”

“You asked if I was actually my own older, cooler, grizzled brother.”

Lance thought for a tick. “Yeah, okay, I did say that.”

“And then you went in for a hug right in front of my mom…”

“Why would it matter if your mom was watching?”

“Because… she knows…”

“Knows what? That I’m a hugger?”

“No, that we’ve slept together.”

“Aw. It’s so nice you can talk to your mom about that stuff.”

“I didn’t, Lance! When we were in the quantum abyss we kept seeing these time flashes from the past and the future and she saw us together.”

Lance’s jaw dropped. “Which would explain why she was staring daggers at me when you first arrived. I corrupted her sweet baby. I guess that explains why you didn’t want to be seen touching me right then and there. But see stuff like that where I have no explanation of why you’re acting that way is evidence of you hating me. What I still don’t understand is why you thought I hated you.”

“It’s not something I thought when I saw you. It’s what I worried about after I left. I knew you’d never been with a guy before and I was terrified you’d be completely freaked out by that or worse, disgusted.”

“Obviously my unconfirmed sexuality weighed on both of us,” admitted Lance. “But the word disgust? It feels like this is more of a you issue.”

“Lance, I don’t want to be this guy,” said Keith, earnestly. “The guy that sabotages his perspective to keep himself from feeling happy and that assumes anyone who was with him physically would be disgusted afterwards. And after two years of reflection, I like to think I’ve changed to some extent. At the very least I’m ready to face rejection head on instead of sneaking away in the night.” Keith looked at Lance expectantly.

“Wow,” said Lance, realization hitting him. “You haven’t changed at all. You’re still expecting me to reject you.”

“Well… you’re angry, right? I hurt you and kept you wondering.”

“And I said I was hoping you’d apologize. Wait, do you think you did that already?”

Keith looked freaked out. “I’m really bad at… talking.” He licked his bottom lip, took a deep breath then said, “I’m sorry, Lance, for leaving, for not contacting you, for making you worry. For all of it. I was so busy protecting myself, I never really thought I was capable of hurting you. And I’m especially sorry I left you to sort out your feelings over your sexuality on your own. I went through that when I was younger and it was really difficult.” Keith reached out and took hold of Lance’s hand, giving it a squeeze. “I’m glad you were brave enough to talk to Shiro about it, even if now you feel like finding out he was a clone lessened it. I wish I could go back in time and be there for you, but I can’t. Still, I’d like to be here for you now.”

“Thank you,” said Lance, he was fairly certain he was blushing.

“As a friend,” added Keith. “I don’t expect anything more.” Keith went to withdraw his hand, but Lance clamped down on the fingers and pulled his hand right back towards him.

“I’m not… rejecting you.” Lance spoke slow and carefully. “Not if you’re still interested. I realize you had two years to get over me and I’ve only had two months, hence I’m not over you but…”

“You’re not over me?” asked Keith, confused. “When were you under me?” Lance raised an eyebrow. “I mean, into me. Ugh. I mean…”

“Keith, I’ve literally been obsessed with you since we met.” Lance sighed because this was hard. “It’s possible some of that was based on attraction and maybe that evil clone was right and I am bisexual.”

“I’m so happy to hear that,” said Keith, the relief evident in his voice. “And I’m proud of you, Lance, for coming out to yourself. That’s a big deal.”

Lance looked down at the ground, he wanted to feel proud of himself, but maybe he just wasn’t there yet. “If I’m bi and I was interested in you from the start, it is possible I made up the entire rivalry thing just to get your attention. Initiator,” said Lance, pointing a finger at himself. “Then I seduced you and I was so subtle about even I didn’t realize it was happening. Huh. Am I Casanova? I feel like I’m Casanova.”

“Lance,” said Keith, refocusing his attention. “I’m not over you.”

Lance blinked. Keith had to be confused over his feelings. “You had two years, you sure?”

“Positive,” answered Keith in that sweet, croaky voice of his. “I thought about you everyday and when I needed to connect with Black to fly back to the Paladins when you were losing to Lotor, you were the first person to pop into my head. I imagined coming back to you and I just flew.”

“Wow,” said Lance. “I seduced you real good.”

“Yes, you did.”

“So I guess if we’re both still game…” Lance gathered up his courage because he wanted to make this as enticing as possible. That involved laying on his side, propped on his elbow, and popping up a knee. “Would you like to d -- ?”

“Do it?” Keith cut him off.

“No,” said Lance, waving a hand in front of him. “I was gonna say, do you want to da --?” And this time his drawstring bag, that had been hiding under the his blanket, choose that exact second to slip off the bed and spill all over the floor and suddenly the word that started as ‘date’ turned into. “Dammit!” Mortified Lance, threw himself across his stash and started sweeping it into a pile.

“Wait…,” said Keith, looking confused. “Right before I got here, were you…?”

“Nope! No! I wasn’t! Okay, fine yes, but to be fair, I thought I was alone in the infinite vastness of space. I was not expecting someone to literally pop in. It should’ve been impossible.”

“Sorry,” said Keith, looking bashful.

“And I was this close to cumming too,” said Lance, his thumb and forefinger half an inch apart. “I accidently edged and I’m not sure if I’m into it.” Lance stood up, holding so much lube and condoms and yes, a dildo.

“Well, do you… want me to help with that?” Keith’s gaze was on Lance’s crotch.

“Sweet,” said Lance. “That is the opening line in like five of my favourite pornos. But um, you don’t have to…”

“Sit down,” directed Keith. Lance didn’t need to be told twice, as he dropped down onto the bed, letting everything he’d been holding scatter onto the bed around him. “Let me see it.”

Lance was a little nervous about Keith seeing him, er, not at attention, but when he reached into his pants, low and behold, he was hard already. Of course he was. Keith himself was acting out his favourite porno. Lance watched as Keith wet his lips as he lowered to his knees in front of him. Lance stopped him. “Keith, wait.” Keith looked at him with confusion. “Lose the shirt.” Keith smirked at him and pulled it off and whoa, whoa, whoa! He looked even better shirtless than he’d imagined. He’d officially reached beefcake status.

“You are so fucking hot now,” said Lance.

“Now?” questioned Keith, catching the phrasing. He placed his hands on Lance’s inner thighs and spread them wide open.

“You were always hot, but this is ridiculous.” How do you take the most beautiful boy ever created and then give him gainz for days? It shouldn’t be legal.

“You’re hot, Lance,” said Keith, just lightly brushing his lips over Lance’s lips. Lance tried to lean in for more, but Keith just leaned back. “And that’s why I want to taste you.” Violet eyes shone in the dark and Keith lowered himself down. Lance was tempted to pinch himself because this felt too good to be true. What if this was still part of his earlier fantasy and he was making this whole scenario up in his head? But then Lance felt that first kiss on the head of his cock and he knew it was real. Fantasy never felt this good.

Keith took Lance’s cock in his firm grip and began spreading those soft kisses up and down the base. “Don’t tease me,” begged Lance. “I was so close before you got here.”

“What were you thinking about?” asked Keith with a curious tilt of his head. His hand was absentminded stroking Lance up and down, but that mouth of his… That sexy little mouth with the tiny little pout of the lips was all Lance could focus on. That’s what he wanted now so badly and if he had to honest to get it, he’d spill everything.

“I was thinking about you.” It came out like a whisper. His breathing was so shallow and quick. The anticipation was agony.

Keith gave the side of his cock a tiny lick as a reward, but then pulled back again. “What was I doing that was getting you so hot?” Where the fuck was this bravado coming from? Was he suddenly so changed after his two years without contact?

Hesitation was king. Why was Lance able to let Keith suck his cock, but not able to admit that he was daydreaming about fucking him in the ass?

“Don’t get silent on me, Sharpshooter,” said Keith. Oh no… He was using Lance’s own teasing against him.

“I was fucking you,” admitted Lance.

Keith gave him a long lazy lick as reward. “I could’ve guessed. But how?” Keith paused. He made no effort to return to licking his cock and that was torture for Lance.

“I was fucking you in the ass!” Lance blurted out because he honestly couldn’t hold off anymore. “Please suck me off.”

Amethyst eyes grew wide and shiny as Keith drew Lance’s cock into his mouth. Lance was in heaven and then out his cock did go. “What makes you think…” Keith repeated the motion, drawing the cock into his mouth with a firm suck then dragging his lips across it as he pulled it all the way back out. “I would ever let you fuck me that way?”

“It was fantasy,” said Lance, watching with deep satisfaction and pleasure as Keith took him into his mouth again, this time bobbing his head and not letting the cock fall back out. “I don’t expect you to.” He was losing focus on the conversation as building pleasure between his thighs demanded his attention. Still, Lance didn’t appreciate Keith teasing him and he wanted to pay him back. “Of course, I never expected you to blow me either, but here we are.”

There was enough time to relish a startled look in Keith’s eyes before Lance lost himself in the act. So incredibly hungry for Keith, he pushed himself up onto his hands and thrust himself into Keith’s mouth, needing more than what he was being given. No one made him feel like Keith did. No one drove him wild like Keith did. No one made him cum like Keith did. Speaking of which…

The orgasm snuck up on both of them. Sudden and intense, it had Lance moaning through it, slowing down the bucking of his hips and riding the wave to a soft, billowy landing. Keith kept it at even after Lance had flopped back in post-orgasm bliss. He just kept lapping at him.

“You know I came, right?”

“Hard to miss,” said Keith, finally pulling back. “But I didn’t want it to end so soon.”

Had it been fast? It could’ve been two ticks or ten deca-phoebs. Lance had existed outside of time back there. “Oops” said Lance.

“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t last half that long,” said Keith. He stood as Lance sat back up. He was then treated to an eye level view of Keith’s hard dick tenting in those thin pajama pants.

“Want help with that?” Lance asked, wickedly.

“You could blow on that and I would probably cum.”

Curious, Lance pursed his lips and blew out softly and damn, his cock twitched. Keith gave a heavy exhale. “See, with just… wow…”

“So, uh, what’s going on with the ultra sensitivity?”

“It’s just been a very long time since I’ve had a release.”

“How long?” questioned Lance. He watched Keith’s face turn a lovely shade of red.

“You don’t know what it was like in the quantum abyss! I lived on the back of a space whale for two years with a cosmic wolf and my mom sleeping beside me! I had no privacy and then I get back and my bedroom gets destroyed with the rest of the Castleship and now I’m still sleeping beside my mom, but this time it’s in the cargo hold of Black. Same situation, different location, and I don’t know how much longer I can take it!”

“Whoa, babe, hun,” said Lance, taking Keith’s hands and guiding him down so he sat on the bed beside him. First of all, that’s the most words I have ever heard you string together so bravo. That was a good share. Second, why didn’t you just find some time to take care of yourself?”

Keith looked at him, annoyed. “I just told you, I couldn’t.”

“Yeah, but there’s always a way.”

“No, there isn’t.”

“Keith, one time we went straight from a Voltron battle to a meeting in the Control Room and I arrived only moments after the meeting had begun despite the fact that I’d done a solo dance with myself in a utility closet.”

“Is that why you’re always late for meetings? And why you’re always so relaxed when you arrive?”

“Yes,” said Lance with a nod, squeezing Keith’s hands. “And you’re always on time and so grouchy and this all makes sense now, doesn’t it? The trick is, you just treat it like puberty never ended and you’re still dodging your parents and siblings in order to get your jollies in.”

“I didn’t have parents when puberty hit.”

Lance paused. “Okay, that’s a harsh reality for you. No wonder you’re not creative enough to figure out how to masterbate with your mother around.”

“I hate this conversation,” said Keith.

“Then maybe you should stick your cock in my mouth to shut me up.”

Keith groaned. “Don’t say sexy things. It’s torture.”

“You are a saint for taking care of me first,” said Lance with all sincerity. He slipped his hand behind Keith’s neck, sinking his fingers into that soft mullet he missed so much, and pulled Keith into a proper kiss. Seconds into an electrifying embrace, Keith gave a whimper and pulled back. “You okay?”

“Yes, just sensitive at the moment.” Keith’s eyes flicked downwards. “And you are so intense.”

“I wasn’t trying to be.”

“It’s just what you’re like.”

“You’re into it.”

“Normally, but not when I’m as fragile as a leaf,” whispered Keith.

“Okay,” said Lance with a soft nod. He took his thumb and trailed it across the Galra mark on Keith’s left cheek. He’d been wanting to touch it since he’d first seen it. “I’m gonna take care of you without overwhelming you.” Lance put one hand on the inside of Keith’s thigh and slowly ran it upwards. “You can stop me at anytime.”

Keith didn’t stop him, but his breath was quick and swallow. Lance crept his fingers towards the bulge in Keith’s pants then took his index and the middle finger placed them on either side of his erection, not even touching it, he ran them along the stretch, allowing the fabric to add pressure for him. Keith bit down on his bottom lip like even this was too intense.

Lance whispered into Keith’s ear, “It’s so sexy when you’re this wound up.” He planted the lightest kiss on his jaw only to have Keith take in the biggest breath and sigh it out. He was putty.

One knee hooked over the other boy’s and Lance came to sit, halfway on Keith’s lap, straddling his knee. Keith’s eyes widen, startled by the position chance. Lance brushed the back of his hand against Keith’s cheek, reassuringly. He dipped in for a kiss and this time it was Keith that pulled him fully up against himself, using his arms and the suck of his kiss to mold Lance to him. With this encouragement, Lance began to move, rolling his own hips against Keith’s, feeling the pressure of the Black Paladin’s hard cock through their clothes as he gyrated against him.

The slightest moan escaped Keith’s mouth. Everything Lance was doing was so slight, so slow, so silent that Keith’s squeak of a moan gave the impression of a roar. Lance moved against him quicker, rocking his hips on top of Keith’s lap. Then Keith was pulling him down, letting himself relax back onto the bed and towing Lance down on top of him. Down, down, down… Even when Keith’s back hit that bed, it never stopped feeling like falling, not when he was moving against Keith, kissing him freely and wildy. Lance never stopped falling as fingernails dug into his arms and Keith arched his back, pushing those hips into Lance, moans escaping as he came against him.

Keith’s body relaxed underneath him and Lance allowed his body to do the same, resting his head on the other boy’s shoulder. Keith was breathing deeply and quickly, sucking in desperately needed oxygen. 

“That was the hottest thing we’ve ever done,” confessed Lance. “And we’re still 75% clothed.”

“We could do it again,” suggested Keith and Lance could hear the happiness in his voice without needing to see his face.

“Nope!” said Lance, sitting up. Keith looked up at him, confused, until Lance added, “Take off those pants, I want to see what your thighs look like now.” One corner of Keith’s mouth twitched up in a twisted smile.


	5. Excuse me while I kiss the sky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has a bad day, but it improves when he and Keith experiment with psychedelic lube then have a fluffy date.

Keith’s lower half was just as gorgeous as is upper half and the two halves together… wow! It was certainly inspiration for another round of heavy petting and sucking. After they were both satiated, they cuddled up naked. Lance only had the one pillow, but he didn’t mind Keith having it if he got to rest his head on his chest.

“I’m really glad you came back,” he mumbled.

“Me too,” answered Keith.

Lance fell asleep easily for the first time since the cargo hold became his bedroom, only briefly sparing a thought over how he’d felt bad just masterbating inside Red only to turn around go all the way to third base inside him. Whoops. His bad. But he was way too happy to let that interrupt a blissful transition into dreamland. Unfortunately he woke up in a rage…

“Keith!” yelled Lance, throwing off the covers, as if he’d find Keith curled up in there. “Where are you?” he bellowed, his voice filling up the empty cargo hold. Keith had done it again! He’d slipped away in the middle of the night to leave Lance to wake up alone! “That mother fucker…”

Fuming, he stormed into Red’s cockpit, not bothering to put a stitch of clothes on. He plopped down in the pilot seat with full intention of opening up a private channel to Black on the comlink so he could tell Keith off. It’s just… Wait, which button did that again?

He stared at the control panel, unable to remember how this was done. After nothing came to mind, he hit the button to call all the Lions at once. “Pidge, patch me through to Keith!”

“Patch yourself through,” she responded, annoyed.

“I don’t know how!” he barked.

“Open up the Outgoing Signals menu and use the drop down to find Audio and then Black.”

“That’s easy,” said Lance then he proceeded to stare at the console. “No wait. I don’t read Altean.”

“Okay, but how can you not even find the proper menus? Do you not know how to work your console?”

“I’m pretty sure all I’ve ever done inside Red is press the accelerator and jam my Bayard into the slot thingy.”

“I’m right here,” said Keith’s voice out of nowhere. “Just say what you have to say.”

“I’d rather speak in private, thank you very much.”

“Anything you have to say to Keith, you can say in front of us,” said Hunk. “Mostly because we need the entertainment.”

“Yes, what is it regarding?” asked Allura. “Does it concern us all?”

“Nope!” said Lance. “This is between the head and his right hand man.” Oh no, why did that sound sexual?

“Ah, c’mon,” whined Hunk. “We’re so bored and it sounds like you two are about to have a blowout fight. I wish I had the means to make popcorn…”

“If it’s Voltron related, I insist you involve me,” demanded Allura.

“No, it’s personal,” said Lance.

“Ohhhhh, personal?” You could practically hear the smirk in Pidge’s voice.

“But not too personal,” said Lance, covering his tracks. “A perfectly normal amount of personal. Enough so that Keith and I should talk alone, but not so personal that it would be interesting for anyone else to listen in.”

“Well, now I really want to hear,” said Hunk.

Lance groaned. “New question, Pidge, how do I mute everybody?”

“I’m going to hail you on a personal channel,” said Keith. “Hold on.”

There was a chorus of disappointed awes, before the voices were cut off by an incoming call. Lance smashed the button to answer it. That’s when Keith’s face popped up on his console… And Krolia’s face… And Shiro’s face… Because it was a video call… And Lance had answered naked…

“Ah!” screamed Lance, slapping his hand across the screen.

“Uh… Lance,” said Keith. “You’re blocking the screen not the camera…” Oh shit! Where’s the camera?

“Why are you naked?” asked Krolia. “Are you always naked while flying?”

“Lance, it’s not a literal cockpit,” said Shiro. “You need to wear your Paladin suit to fly.”

“Somebody please hang up on me!” begged Lance.

*******

Lance had a long, angry, humiliating day made worse by the fact that literally nothing else happened all day beyond the rumour spreading to all the other Lions that he flies in the nude. He had to endure nudity jokes all day long and when he finally yelled at everyone to knock it off, Shiro chimed in with, “I’m sorry we’re making so many jokes at your expense.” Lance was just about to thank him when Shiro added, “It’s just such low hanging fruit.” And then all the humans burst out laughing AND THEN since the Alteans and the Garlan didn’t get it, Lance had to listen to Shiro explain the joke and ugh… What a terrible day.

He’d finally managed to fall asleep when he was startled awake by a ZAP! And there Keith was, standing near his bed, looking all too familiar, but Lance was not having any of it this time.

“Nope! No! Nuh-uh!” Lance threw off his blanket and leapt out of bed. “You can’t just pop in here and expect the cookie after blowing me off! No more Wham Bam, thank you, Lance!”

“Are you mad at me?” asked Keith in the most innocent voice possible. How dense is he?

“Yes, I’m mad at you! What was the one thing I was furious about when you left? That I woke up to an empty bed! What happened this morning? I woke up to an empty bed!”

“Yeah, but I -,” began Keith, suddenly flustered. “I had to get back. I couldn’t leave Black with no pilot!”

“Keith, you have a teleporting wolf! You could’ve gotten back there on a moment’s notice! It is literally quicker for you to get to Black’s cockpit from here than it is for me to get to Red’s.” As if demonstrating this, the comic wolf ZAP’d! himself out of the room.”

“Okay, fair point.” Keith crossed his arms. “But I also didn’t want my mom to freak out after waking up to me not there.”

“Yeah gee, wonder what that would be like?” sassed Lance.

“I’m sorry,” said Keith. “How about next time, even though I still need to leave early, I wake you up to say goodbye first?”

“Next time? What makes you think there will be a next time?” Lance wasn’t done being mad. It had been a terrible day.

“You’re right,” said Keith, rubbing the back of his neck. “I shouldn’t have assumed you’d want to do anything and I shouldn’t have brought this.” Keith pulled a small, familiar, red bottle of lube out of his pj bottoms pocket.

“Wait, you were the one who took my lube? I thought Pidge had run out of hers and snatched the second bottle.”

“You told me I should take one,” said Keith, looking embarrassed.

“Right, I did. And that makes sense since Pidge and I go tit for tat.”

“Excuse me?”

“As in we have a strict, take one, leave one policy.”

“Right,” said Keith, relaxing slightly.

“So,” began Lance, his eyes on the bottle of lube. “You tried that one then?”

“No, remember, I told you last night I didn’t jerk off the entire time I was gone.”

“Yeah, but you had all of today.”

“Why would I masterbate during the…?” Keith trailed off, noticing the look Lance was giving him. “Oh, you masterbated today.”

“In my defense, I was bored, I was already naked, and I had all these sexy images of you in my head.”

Keith sighed. “I would question the chronic masturbation, but you’re constantly in a good mood so obviously it’s working for you.”

“I guess my next question is,” said Lance, “If you haven’t tried that lube yet, would you like to?”

“Well, you said it hurts,” said Keith, frowning at the bottle.

“No, it hurts afterwards.”

“And… that’s better?”

“Definitely,” said Lance. “If you were scared to try it, why did you pick that one to take with you?”

“I just liked the colour.” Lance raised an eyebrow at Keith. “It reminded me of Red because that’s the Lion we’ve both connected with and it was stupid…”

“Keith, you ol’ softy,” murmured Lance, taking Keith by the hand and yanking him towards the bed. “I think I should show you exactly the kind of fire spirit that’s inside that bottle.”

“I’m kinda freaked out by the fact that you said it burns and now you’re using fire imagery to describe it.” Lance pulled off Keith’s shirt as he said this then went to work on his shirt next.

“It feels like it’s burning after, but doesn’t actually damage the skin, but during… oh man… It’s something you have to experience for yourself. Of course,” said Lance, pulling the bottle out of Keith’s hand. “If you’re too intimidated, I can show you…” He poured several drops from the bottle into his open palm. “And you can watch.”

Lance paused waiting for a response for Keith. Keith nodded for him to go ahead. Kneeling on the bed, Lance gave Keith a wicked grin as he pulled his dick out of his pants and ran his hand over it, spreading out the lube. The sensation was immediately intense and it must’ve been evident on Lance’s face because it prompted Keith to say, “Really? It feels that good with one stroke of your own hand?”

“Your hand would be better,” said Lance with a wink.

“Gimme that,” said Keith, snatching the bottle back. He poured an amount that was far more than Lance had ever used into his palm then took Lance’s cock and ran his hand down the length.

Suddenly a ringing in Lance’s ear, his jaw dropped open and seemed to get stuck that way, and his knees started to tremble. Lance dropped his head onto his shoulder Keith’s shoulder, needing that extra support in case his knees gave out on him from the ecstasy of it all. The pleasure was so rich, it was like a flavour in his mouth.

“Why are you acting so weird?” asked Keith as he stroked Lance. His voice sounded dismissive, but Lance could see he was hard too. No, wait, no Lance had his eyes closed, he wasn’t looking so how did he know Keith was erect? Lance inhaled deeply against Keith’s neck, it was like he could smell the arousal coming off of him. Who were these alien scientists that engineered this lube and why weren’t they using their genius on greater matters such as curing hunger and disease?

“No way it’s that intense,” said Keith, that familiar defensiveness in his voice. Keith stopped stroking Lance which immediately took away the ringing in his ears and allowed him to focus more on his surroundings. He watched Keith pull out his own hard cock and Lance found himself licking his lips and then giggling to himself for being so obvious.

“No, me me,” said Lance when he saw Keith go for the lube again. He wanted to eloquently suggest that he be the one to jerk Keith off, but it came out in muppet-speak. Lance poured four, five, maybe ten drops of the lube into his hand. Both positioned on their knees and facing each other Lance attempted to double check Keith wanted to try this, but his question came out as, “Sure?”

Keith rolled his eyes and took Lance’s hand and placed it on his own dick. A sharp breath of air escaped Keith. He nearly tipped over to the side. The effects were always immediate. There was never a slow build. “Two years and I never… uh…” Yeah, that speech control was never going to last. Keith’s hand slid around his cock again and then Lance was in the no proper thought process zone again.

It wasn’t long before both their heads drooped down onto each other’s shoulders, leaning into each other for support as they jerked each other off. There was beauty in the symmetry of their bodies. Lance marveled in the sensation of him stroking a cock that wasn’t his yet feeling it on his own cock.

With great effort, Lance decided to raise his head because he needed to kiss Keith right now. It was urgent. It was a makeout emergency. It was a search to find his face and then his lips, but once they met, that ringing in his ears changed tones. It wasn’t ringing, it was music. No, it wasn’t in his ears, it was coming from Keith. Lance had missed music so badly, but now it was flowing through Keith into him. Did Keith hear this too, he wondered as their lips met and parted, met and parted in time to the music. Their hands stroked each other’s lengths in time with the rhythm. Lance felt his very soul vibrating in time to the music they were creating together. And here came the crescendo…

Was it his orgasm he was feeling or Keith’s? Was there a difference? Did they weave this bliss together, passing it back and forth like an echo? Keith’s moans entered his mouth, swirled around, and blew back out as Lance’s moan. Which one of them pitched them sideways, Lance wasn’t sure. He wasn’t certain the laws of physics still applied. But then they hit the bed and it was like reality snapped back into place. 

They lay there, entwined, stone cold sober, gasping for breath.

“Lance?” said Keith, between big sucks of air.

“Keith? Five…” Talking this soon post mega-orgasm felt exhausting.

“Kinda wish you’d given me the heads up on that lube having a psychedelic effect.”

“Four. Dude, when I first showed you the bottle I told you would taste sound and hear colour. What else would that mean? Three.”

“I thought you were being colourfully descriptive, not literal.”

“Then I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to surprise you with that. Two.”

“What are you counting down to?”

“One. To the burn.”

“To the – Ah!” Keith cried out in pain and Lance was right there with him, but at least he’d been braced for when his junk would suddenly light on fire. Keith, however, seemed to have forgotten that warning or perhaps didn’t take that one seriously either.

“Deep breaths,” said Lance, rolling up to sitting. “It’s not actually burning your flesh, it just feels like it is.”

“Helpful,” said Keith through gritted teeth.

“But then again I’ve never used more than three drops so I can’t say with confidence that this time won’t be different.”

“Real helpful.”

“I’ll get us some ice.” Lance winced as he stood up.

“Ice?”

“Numbs the pain while you wait for it to wear off.”

“Screw that!” said Keith, jumping up. “I’m washing this shit off!”

“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Lance called after him as he headed towards the little fridge in the cargo hold. “Water gives it power.”

Lance returned to the bed, but Keith was still gone. Lance carefully lowered himself back down and lay the soft ice pack over his sore member. These packs were for battle injuries normally, but they worked well in this situation. He overheard the shower (what was basically a stand up sink in a closet with a hose) turn on, followed shortly by another shriek from Keith. “I told you so!” he yelled out.

Keith returned, completely naked and soaking wet because of course there hadn’t been a towel ready for him. His face was pissed, but Lance was too busy enjoying the view of him wet and naked and making a mental note to suggest a shower together at some point when “Ow!” cried Lance, the pain intensifying.

“You okay?” asked Keith, his voice still strained from his own pain.

“Yeah, I just forgot getting a boner when it’s still in post-O burn makes it so much worse.” Lance thought he caught a flash of a smirk before Keith winced again and carefully lowered himself to sit beside him, picking up the second ice pack and placing it gently over his family jewels. 

“Great. Now I’m freezing.”

“Here,” said Lance, cuddling up to him. Then he grabbed his blanket and pulled it over them.

“How could the people who made this lube make it feel so good, but fail to stop it from burning after?”

“Good question. When you were gone I asked Pidge what the label on her bottle said and apparently it warns that the burning sensation was added as a measure to discourage overuse of the product. I get it. If there was no pain afterwards I would immediately use it again and again and again and slowly it would take over my life. Like a cult. Like a lube cult.”

“How long does this last?” asked Keith with a wince.

“An hour. Best if you can distract yourself.”

“Wish I had a book.”

“Pfft. Nerd. Oh hey,” Lance searched amongst his bedding for his phone. “Sometimes I can pick up alien TV signals.”

“Okay,” said Keith.

Lance went into the app Pidge had installed on his phone and flipped through channels until he found one that wasn’t static. “Sweet. I’ve seen this one. I dug it.”

“What’s it about?” asked Keith, leaning into Lance’s shoulder.

“Couldn’t tell you. Had no idea what was happening the entire time. I’d give it four stars. Wanna watch it?”

“Sure,” said Keith.

“Sweet. Hold this.” He transferred the phone to Keith’s hand then carefully got up. When he returned he had a couple recycled water drink packets and a bag of sustenance flakes. “Can’t watch a movie without snacks.”

“Those are gross,” said Keith, pointing at the sustenance flakes.

“On their own, yes, but not with this.” Lanced held up a little bag of green flakes.

“Is that more drugs?” deadpanned Keith.

“What? No! It’s an alien herb mix Hunk put together.” He opened up both bags and sprinkled the herbs onto the flakes. “Voila! Try it. It’s almost like chips. Almost…”

Keith took a flake and popped it in his mouth, crunching as he chewed. “You’re right. It’s almost good even.” As he reached in to get more, Lance snuggled up against him and discretely placed the ice pack over his burning junk once again.

Together they watched the movie on his phone until an hour had passed and Lance felt comfortable enough to remove the ice pack. “Are you good now?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Keith took off his ice pack.

“Warm enough?”

“Plenty warm. But don’t move, okay?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Lance crept his fingers up Keith’s back so he could gently play with his hair. “Wanna sleep now?”

“No, I wanna see what happens,” said Keith, his eyes were still focused on his phone.

“Dude, we’ve been watching this thing for an hour and I couldn’t tell you what already happened. And it’s my second time watching it. I’m pretty sure it’s a love story though.”

“Plus the assassin.”

Lance raised an eyebrow. “What assassin?”

“That one there,” said Keith, pointing to an object on screen.

“I’m not an alien expert, but I don’t think that’s a character. I think that’s a chair.”

“No,” said Keith, clearly offended. “It’s an assassin lurking in the shadows. He’s been in half the scenes.”

“Yeah, all the indoor scenes, like a chair would be.”

“I’m telling you, I know assassins, and he’s just bidding his time. There’s a murder coming.”

“I guess we’ll see.” Lance leaned his head against Keith’s shoulder and sighed.

“What? What are you sighing about?”

“Does my sigh need an about?”

“Knowing you…”

“Fine. I was sighing because I was thinking about how much this feels like a date.”

Lance watched at close range as a bit of colour entered Keith’s cheeks. “You could say that.”

“Then I thought maybe this is how we could’ve been back at the Garrison if things had played out differently and we never went to space and I found some way to finally get you to notice me. We could’ve done normal things like this.”

“You would’ve gotten me to notice you eventually,” said Keith. “You would’ve annoyed me and picked fights with me until I finally paid attention and then one day you would’ve been real with me for five seconds and I would’ve had the chance to discover I like you.”

“Kinda sad we didn’t get that.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Right. Forgot. You love space and the mission and all that.”

“No, it’s just a I didn’t love the Garrison like you did. It never felt like I belonged there.”

Lance fell quiet, feeling just a little bit sad that Keith wasn’t as into his fantasy as he was, but then Keith added. “This place… feels a bit more like somewhere I could belong.”

Lance was glad Keith was looking at the movie on his phone so he didn’t see the big goofy grin spread across his face. “D’aw! Keith, you ol’ softy.”

The movie ended half an hour later without the “assassin” ever making his move. Keith was forced to admit it really was a chair. Then, as they were drifting off to sleep, Keith asked, “What was it like for you?”

“What was what like?”

“What did you experience, when we were… you know…?”

“Oh…” He hesitated for a moment, unsure if his answer was embarrassing. “I felt like you were made of music and I was consuming you.” Not wanting to hear Keith’s thoughts on that, he threw it right back to him. “What about you?”

“I felt like you were a poem I was reading.”

“Kinda the same,” whispered Lance.

“Yeah kinda.”

They fell asleep right after. Lance woke up early to Keith standing beside the bed, gently shaking him. “I’m gonna go back to Black now,” he whispered. “I’m just saying goodbye like I promised.”

Lance nodded his understanding then Keith leaned in and kissed him softly goodbye and he felt his heart swell up in his chest. Keith whistled and the wolf appeared to zap him back to Black. Lance curled up on his side and drifted asleep thinking about how much he liked Keith. That feeling stuck with him until he was woken up to Keith’s voice bellowing over the comlink that it was time to get up for the day and Lance’s grumpy morning self decided he did not like Keith. Keith was a jerk. A sexy, sexy jerk who he couldn’t wait to see again that night.


	6. Look at the stars, look how they shine for you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fluff and smut

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey it's my birthday! Here's a new chapter!

When Keith teleported into Red’s cargo hold that night, Lance was prepared for him.

“Well, hello,” he said in his most seductive voice. He’d surrounded the bed with half a dozen burning candles. He was naked, except for his blanket strategically bunched over his hips as he casually leaned on his side.

Keith didn’t even react. Just stared.

“Never mind!” cried Lance, sitting up and quickly snuffing out all the candles. “We are clearly not there yet and this was a bad idea.”

“Sorry it was…,” began Keith, but now he was burying his face in his hands. “It was just a lot –“

“ – cheesy, I know –“

“I got intimidated – “

“Stupid so stupid… Wait? Intimidated?”

“Yeah, like I walked into a harlequin romance novel and didn’t know what my role was supposed to be.” Keith’s naturally croaky voice was getting that little squeaky intonation he gets when he’s arguing with Lance. “Like how is a person supposed to react to this? Ugh. I’m sorry I’m so awkward!” Keith turned away and looked like he wanted to teleport away, but the cosmic wolf had already zapped out of the room.

“No! Sorry!” said Lance, waving his hands in front of himself. “When I planned this out in my head and didn’t picture you saying anything, just coming over and kissing me and climbing on top of me and… having your way with me…”

Keith glanced over his shoulder. “I just can’t when you’re being this cute.”

“Cute not sexy?” questioned Lance, deciding cute was a compliment, but not what he’d been going for.

“You’re both,” said Keith and Lance beamed.

“Can you come over here already?” begged Lance.

Keith dragged his feet over to the bed and sat down. He kept his eyes on the floor, looking embarrassed.

“When I freak you out, you’re cute,” said Lance.

“I’m not freaked out,” Keith lied. “And you can have candles lit if you want… One! One candle.”

“Wanna pour the wax over my bare chest?” This question was accompanied by an eyebrow wiggle.

Keith looked at Lance like he was nuts. “Dude, I am still a beginner! Stop bringing new kinks into this. You know I’d be happy to be with you in any way.”

“Keith Kogane, happy,” said Lance, gazing at him. “I can’t believe I’m doing that.”

Keith looked embarrassed again, but Lance leaned in and kissed him, softly. 

“I actually did some wax play earlier today,” said Lance with a wicked smile.

“On yourself?” Keith’s voice sounded unimpressed. “When you warned me before you were a really horny person, I should’ve listened.”

“No, for once I wasn’t insinuating I masterbated. I meant I waxed myself. I’m all prepped for ya.” Keith suddenly flopped over with a loud groan. “Uh, Keith? You okay?” Lance pushed back Keith’s hair so he could get a look at his face.

“Yeah, you’re just… you’re so much!”

“I’m so much? How?

“You have a bag of sex accessories and you have candles!”

“What’s wrong with candles? I like candles. I picked them up for me, I wasn’t plotting seduction with them, I just thought they were romantic.”

“Okay, but you have all this experience and it just makes me feel like a lame virgin.” Keith turned his face into the bed to help hide his embarrassment.

“You’re not a virgin, Keith. I saw to that myself.”

“No, I just meant, you’ve got notches in your bedpost and candles to light your view as you carve those notches.”

Lance let out a frustrated sigh. “I fully regret the candles. I had no idea you’d be so triggered by candles, but Keith, you are not a notch. You’re not even a bedpost. You’re a whole bed, if that’s helpful. I’m not making more notches. I haven’t since we first hooked up.”

“Really?” said Keith, sitting up. “You didn’t sleep with anyone while I was away?”

Lance scratched the back of his head. “No, honestly, most of my hookups happened when the Voltron Show of Arms was touring and I had celebrity status to help me out. Since then it’s been all battles and now literally nothing, but road tripping.”

“Oh,” said Keith, suddenly down again.

“That is not to say I’m looking for anyone else to hook up with. I want this, you. Full bed, four posts, full of beef… Need I say more?”

“No, it means a lot that you waited for me.” Keith suddenly pulled Lance into a hug.

“Right,” muttered Lance into Keith’s shoulder. Except waiting hadn’t exactly been by choice. He’d been pinning for Allura while Keith was gone, but that never went anywhere so did he need to tell Keith that? No, that wasn’t what Keith needed to hear right now. He needed some reassurance that even if Lance was slower to realize he wanted this, he still wanted this. “Keith, I’m not just slutting it up with you,” said Lance, finding the words. “Despite making it look easy, I’m way out of my comfort zone here. I put a lot of work into crafting my denial over my bisexuality. I’m taking a big leap by being with you. I’m not doing that lightly. I’m doing it because you’re someone special and you’re worth it.”

“I’m not used to being wanted,” said Keith, his hug so tentative and gentle. “Sorry if I get insecure. I want to be special to you. I’m sorry if it’s hard for me to believe you already feel that way.”

Lance should not, could not, would not tell Keith anything about his past feelings for Allura. Keith could clearly not handle it and therefore it was the right thing to do for Lance to withhold that information… Right?

“I do feel that way,” said Lance because he did and the time he didn’t feel that way, didn’t matter. It was in the past and Keith was his present.

Keith leaned back enough to kiss Lance then he stood up then he grabbed his arm and gave him a tug. “C’mon.”

“C’mon where?” asked Lance. He kept hold of the blanket for the sake of modesty despite the fact that Keith had been intimate with every inch of him.

Keith led Lance up into Red’s cockpit and watched him start tapping things on the controls. 

“I really don’t feel like I should come in here naked again,” said Lance, pausing at the doorway. “My rep is already tarnished.”

“I just set the do not disturb function so no one can disturb us with video chat and only emergency messages while get through.”

“I didn’t know that was an option.” Lance finally stepped into the cockpit. “What are we doing here?”

“I feel bad I made you blow out your candles so I thought I’d bring you to look at a romantic view of the night sky.”

“Oh yay,” said Lance, deadpan. “The exact same view I stare at twelve vargas a day.”

Keith sat down in Red’s pilot seat and beckoned for Lance to join him. Lance relented and sat between Keith’s open legs, leaning his back against Keith’s chest. Okay, so that part wasn’t so bad.

“I know long journeys can be tough,” said Keith.” I lived through one. The everyday sights can get monotonous. Pidge said we’re going to be traveling for a year and half to get back to Earth. As it stands we’re just past the one week mark.”

“Don’t remind me,” groaned Lance, adjusting his blanket so it draped from his neck to his feet. It was chilly in Red’s cockpit despite Keith’s body heat. He really needed to stop being naked in here.

“If we’re lucky we’ll come across inhabited planets where we can get supplies or, at the very least, give our brains a break from flying. But we don’t know if that’ll happen and we need to learn how to cope.”

“This is all extremely depressing and in no way romantic,” said Lance. Then he felt Keith’s arms wrap across his bare tummy and that was kinda nice too. Lance relaxed his neck and let his head tip back against Keith’s shoulder as Keith rested his own against the top of Lance’s head.

“Sometimes changing your perspective helps. Looking at things from a different angle. When I spent all that time on the Space Whale -”

“I don’t understand how you can say the words ‘space whale’ with a straight face every time.”

“Lance, nothing I do I straight, but anyway – I’d sometimes look up at the stars and feel tiny and insignificant.”

“Oh that helps,” chuckled Lance. “I’ll stave off boredom with an existential crisis.”

“But then,” continued Keith, “I’d remember that I’m made out of the same cosmic dust as those stars and that means I’m connected to everything and part of something huge and endless.”

Lance gazed out at the stars and tried to feel that ‘connected to something larger sense,’ but his feelings stalled.

“But right now,” said Keith, “Looking at the stars I’m thinking about all those tiny points of light as a hundred thousand candles burning in the sky.”

Lance thought of it that way, candles as far as he could see with the warmth of Keith pressed against his back and suddenly the same view he saw every day felt romantic after all. “Now I suspect you’re seducing me, Kogane.”

“Is it working?” asked Keith in his cute little croaky voice.

Lance answered by tilting his head to the side and up to silently ask for a kiss. Keith obliged him, dipping his head to drag his bottom lip across Lance’s. Lance used his own lips to trap that lip there, breathing deep in through his nose as he ran the tip of his tongue across Keith’s bottom lip. Lance felt Keith whole body open up to him in response, like every single muscle was softening and realigning to mold against Lance. Keith ran his hands over Lance, this time not going straight for his cock, but sliding up across his pecs then back down over the top of his thighs before dipping between them, still never getting even close to brushing any of the really good stuff.

Lance felt that increase in gravity in his hips. That tug as neediness radiated from his hardening cock. Fuck, if Keith touched him there he would be putty. He would lose it. Keith’s hands stayed off target though, as the left continued exploring his thigh and his right travelled up to grip tight across Lance’s chest. Lance was so hungry for Keith’s mouth, he was practically lapping at him. He let out a disappointed whimper as Keith broke off the kiss. He needn’t have complained though as Keith’s lips travelled downwards to kiss and suckle at Lance’s neck.

“Keith…” Lance’s voice couldn’t decide if it was a whimper or a moan. What Keith was doing felt so fucking good, but he wanted so much more. In this position Lance had little say over what Keith did to him. Even when he tried to use his own hands to guide Keith’s to the spot he desperately wanted to be touched, Keith’s hands stayed on course, ignoring Lance’s suggestions. Frustrated, Lance let the blanket drop and traveled one hand up across his own chest until he found Keith’s head and twisted his fingers into his hair, needing some semblance of control, needing some bit of Keith to cling to. 

Fuck, he wanted Keith. When Keith was gone during the day and Lance spent his time missing him and imaging sexy things they could do together, Lance thought he understood how badly he wanted Keith, but in the moment he knew much deeper depths of longing. In the moment with Keith giving him a hickey and running those strong, rough fingers all over him, Lance was a black hole trying to pull Keith into his infinite abyss. His brain was a dense fog of hormones. He needed to get off. He was desperate. He thought of using his own free hand to touch himself. A few rubs and he’d likely tip over the edge, but he didn’t want to waste cumming on his own hand. He wanted Keith to get him there. Wanted to spill himself on some part of Keith… inside of Keith.

“Please touch me, baby,” whimpered Lance. Fuck, what an embarrassing thing to say.

“Soon, not yet,” answered Keith. He then licked his way up Lance’s neck, all the way behind his ear. Lance let out a frustrated whimper. He’d got so hot so quickly and it was all Keith’s fault and he was being a jackass by not touching him. Two could play at that game. Lance could feel Keith’s hard cock through the thin material of Keith ‘spajama pants. Lance leaned his weight onto his toes and braced one arm on the arm rest so he could lift his hips and arch his back and drag his ass every so slightly over Keith’s erection. He felt so satisfied when he heard that tiny puff of air escape the boy’s mouth. 

Lance continued to grind until Keith’s arm gripped tight across his chest, trying to stop him from moving. “Too much,” muttered Keith.

“You can dish it out, but you can’t take it,” teased Lance, he kept trying to grind despite Keith’s resistance and slowly Keith weakened his grip, enjoying the sensation too much to stop it.

“Lance, your ass is just…,” Keith trailed off, biting off a moan.

“It’s what?” pressed Lance, he was far less concerned with his needy dick now that he had Keith wrapped around his finger.

“It’s perfect,” Keith with ragged breath. “Your whole body is perfect.”

That bit of praised lit a warm fire in Lance’s chest. Still… “Says the perfect ten. You’re so hot, it’s intimidating.”

“I started imaging fucking you long before you started thinking dirty thoughts about me so don’t you dare compare. You’re the end of me.”

Lance ate it up, ate up every word, setting his head further into a tailspin. It all got better as Keith gave up on holding Lance back and put his own hands on Lance’s hips so he could lift him onto his lap and grind Lance against his hard cock. “Fuck, I wanted to do this different, but I can’t wait,” mumbled Keith.

“Do it different how?” questioned Lance. He loved the sensation of Keith pushing his hips over his own cock. He felt used and he loved it.

“I wanted to fuck you proper.” Keith let out a moan. “I wanted to be inside you.” He was getting rougher, his grip digging his fingernails into Lance’s naked hips.

“Inside me where?” pressed Lance because he wanted to push Keith, make this quiet boy say all the dirty things out loud. “My hand? My mouth? Or…?” Lance didn’t even say it, just worked with Keith’s motion to pressing his ass against his cock, having flashbacks to their first time with Keith grinding his cock between Lance’s ass cheeks.

“Your ass,” said Keith, his voice strained. “I wanted to fuck your perfect ass again, Lan - …ahhh.” Keith came against Lance, his hands gripping him so hard he was sure to leave nail marks and his face pushing into Lance’s back, knicking him with his teeth.

Lance let him ride his orgasm out then suddenly remembered his own swelling cock, begging for attention. Keith must’ve remembered at the exact same second because suddenly Lance was being lifted up and he was being placed on shaky legs. Keith was bent him forward so Lance had to lean his hands on Red’s controls. Keith’s body was pressed up against Lance’s back again and with Keith’s arm around his waist, it felt all too familiar, but standing this time. But then Keith’s hand finally found his cock, leaving half a second after he touched it so Keith could spit in the palm of his hand then wrap it back around and go about furiously jerking Lance off. 

The intensity was zero to sixty in no seconds flat. The sudden rush of pleasure mixed with Lance’s already foggy brain threatened to buckle his knees and make him collapse if it weren’t for Keith’s strong arm supporting him.

Keith…

Keith and his strong body and his soft lips, caressing Lance’s neck. Keith, who wanted Lance so badly he came with his clothes on because the friction of Lance sent him over the edge. Keith who wanted to fuck Lance in his ass.

Lance’s vision went double for a second, but then realization that he was about to cum jolted some sense into. He was bent right over the controls. “No, wait, I’ll make a mess,” he said, urgently. Though it all slurred together and likely made no sense, but Keith got the word no and stopped, taking his hands off Lance. Then Lance really went into panic mode because he did not want Keith to stop touching him. He suddenly felt so desperately in need of him.

Lance spun and grabbed Keith by the shoulders, pulling him back against him, needing him more than he ever had. Keith seemed so thrown, especially when Lance was kissing him and rubbing his whole body against him. He needed a release and he needed it now and he could not think straight. Well… he wasn’t...

“Suck me off,” he begged. “Please. You can fuck my ass if you just suck me off first.” Keith’s eyes went wide and Lance had a brief moment of clarity where he realized how desperate he sounded. But then Keith was turning him and backing him up. Lance had lost track of spatial relations so it as a surprise when Keith hooked a leg behind his and an arm around his armpit and Lance found himself lowered into the pilot seat. He’d honestly wondered for a second if Keith was going to drop him on the ground.

Lance didn’t even have time to get comfy before Keith was on his knees in front of him, spreading his legs open, and taking his cock into his mouth. Lance had been able to appreciate the sight last time of the gorgeous leader of Voltron on his knees, sucking his cock, but he was way too close already now and he came immediately, all that tingling in his nerves erupting into pleasure. He bucked his hips up as he arched his back and felt Keith gag on his cock. Oops. But even that was hot. It was all so good, all so, so good. This was a big one and he found himself gripping the arm rests, involuntarily lifting his legs and squeezing his thighs in, gripping Keith’s head between his thighs. He twisted, because his body felt so good, he needed to move with it. Luckily Keith was rock solid and Lance didn’t yeet him over. Lance’s muscles finally let him relax after the orgasm had crested and moved out of his body, using his toes and fingertips as exit points. Lance’s legs came to rest on Keith’s back and he took deep, relaxing breaths. 

Lance’s dick slid out of Keith’s mouth and he felt just a taste of cold as the spit and cum slick cock hit air. Lance wanted to look at Keith to see if he’d swallowed again, but Keith was moving, lifting Lance’s legs up to tilt his hips. Lance could see exactly what Keith was positioning his face for, but still dumbly asked, “What are you doing?”

“You promised,” said Keith with an evil inflection in his voice. “And you know I’ve kept my promise to you.”

Lance actually felt a blush rise in his cheeks. Keith had promised Lance all his firsts, something that had thrilled him at the time, but when Keith left on him without saying goodbye he’d stopped believing that promise meant anything.

Lance was jolted out of his reflection when he felt Keith’s tongue lick across his asshole on a diagonal. Soft and wet, it felt so amazing. Keith licked again at the opposite angle and Lance let out a sigh of contentment. He had just come thirty-second ago and now this was happening. Keith was so giving all of sudden after denying him before. But then Keith just wanted to pamper Lance before he fucked him. That wasn’t a complaint though. He loved being wanted by Keith that way.

Keith was working his tongue, unabashedly eating that ass. It felt so good. Better than anything. More so than a blow job and Lance wasn’t sure why. Maybe because the build was slow and relaxing. No urgency. But at the same time if felt dirty to be licked and kissed there and that made it feel so fucking wrong and amazing. “I love when you eat my ass,” moaned Lance in the most relaxed voice. Sex could be exciting, but this was just blissful.

“I love eating it,” said Keith before diving in again. His tongue tentatively pressed into the asshole, searching slowly inwards, the width opening up Lance just a little. Lance moaned his approval. Keith withdrew his tongue then thrust it back in again, this time with more confidence. He repeated himself, pushing his tongue in then dragging it just a little bit up as he pulled out. He was essentially fucking Lance’s asshole with his tongue and it felt incredible.

“It feels so good, Keith,” mumbled Lance because his moans didn’t feel like encouragement enough. He wanted to Keith to know how amazing he made him feel.

Keith withdrew his tongue and Lance felt a thumb replace it, pressing against his spit-slicked hole. Lance met Keith’s eye and saw large pupils lined with a thin circle of amethyst. “The wait is agony,” said Keith, running a hand over Lance’s thigh. “I want you now.”

Lance had a brief moment of worry when he realized he’d left his lube and all other supplies back in the cargo hold, but then Keith was standing and taking Lance’s hand to pull him up with him. What Keith didn’t realize was Lance wasn’t currently incapable of standing under his own power. His legs were jello after cumming so hard into Keith’s mouth and then having Keith eat out his ass like he was an ice cream cone on a hot day. Lance tripped forward, but was immediately caught by Keith against his big strong chest. ‘My boyfriend is so strong,’ thought Lance in his foggy haze of a brain before stopping to marvel at the idea of him having a boyfriend then immediately doubting Keith was indeed his boyfriend. ‘Note to self: ask.’

“Can you make it down to the cargo hold?” asked Keith, with concern.

“No,” said Lance, firmly. “Carry me in your strong arms like a baby.”

“I’m not doing that,” said Keith, a bit of his old edge entering his voice.

“I can’t walk,” whimpered Lance, playing up his helplessness by wrapping his arms around Keith’s neck. He was surprised when Keith leaned into him and scooped his hands under Lance’s thighs. He hoisted him up and Lance suddenly found himself with his legs wrapped around Keith’s waist with Keith fully supporting his body weight with his hands just south of Lance’s ass.

They seemed to both have a moment of quiet surprise as they realized they were now in a standing sex position… A very advanced sex position. One Lance was in no way ready to attempt, but was very much turned on by the idea of it.

Keith cleared his throat. “I’m going to carry you to the bed now.” It was almost robotic in its delivery like Keith wanted to make it clear he wasn’t going to fuck Lance right there and then.

“Okay,” agreed Lance, a bit of tension still in his voice. “But I’m going to remember you’re capable of holding me in his position. You know, for future romps and sexy escapades.”

This seemed to inspire Keith to kiss Lance before carrying him down. Back on the bed with Keith on top, things progressed both quickly and far too slowly. When you want to fuck, it’s hard to go through the prep, but at the same time it was so worth it and just taking those steps with Keith made it satisfying on many levels.

“How do you want me?” escaped Lance’s lips as Keith finished putting on the condom.

“On your front,” said Keith. “Let me see that ass.”

Lance lay on his stomach, pushing up his ass just a bit to give Keith the best view. Keith kneeled just behind his ass, his knees falling on either side of Lance’s legs. He then ran his hands over his cheeks before Lance felt him spread them open. 

Lance felt cozy laying on his front, but he was practically trembling with anticipating. He felt the tip of Keith’s cock press against his asshole and let out a slow relaxing breath. Maybe it was the practice with the dildo or the prep work or the fact that having his ass eaten out turned him into a tension free rag doll, or maybe it was because they’d done it already and his nerves were gone, but Keith’s cock slid all the way in. Lance was so ready for him, but still the sensation was so filling.

“Lance,” moaned Keith, sliding his cock back just far enough to not slip out. “Does it feel good?”

Lance realized Keith was still concerned that he may hurt him, which was so sweet, but didn’t feel like as much of a risk this time. “It feels perfect, Keith. Keep going.”

Keith dove back in again and Lance bit his lip as Keith thrust in and out. It felt so different this time, so much smoother.

“You’re amazing,” said Keith as he pumped. “You’re so good to me.”

“You’re fucking me so good,” answered Lance because it did feel oh so good like this. Keith was taking his time, loving him so good, but going so deep. Lance finally understood the meaning of ecstasy. He loved the first time Keith had fucked him, but there had been a few discomforts that kept Lance from fully letting go, but this time it felt completely right. The thrusting felt like a delicious slow build.

Keith’s left hand was situated on Lance’s left butt cheek and his fingers tips were lightly massaging him there. Then Lance felt Keith’s right hand on his other cheek. Suddenly they both gripped and Keith used that stability to increase his speed. Lance felt a thrill of being wanted so badly and then Keith cock started to press against just the right spot and Lance let out a moan, grabbing at the bed sheet, feeling he needed some kind of grounding point.

“You like that, Samurai?” asked Keith and it was so fucking cocky and absurd, but Lance ate it up.

“Yes, fuck yes,” responded Lance. “Fuck me.” Lance wasn’t even sure if that had been an order or just something you say when you’re overwhelmed, but Keith took it as the former, picking up his speed until he was just shy of jackhammering Lance. Lance’s next noise was closer to a cry than a moan, but he added a “yessss” to make sure Keith didn’t dare slow down.

“You take that cock so good now. Fuck,” muttered Keith.

Shit. Lance loved it when Keith talked dirty. Loved his dick pounding into his ass, hitting his prostate, making him hot and sweaty and dirty. Keith was rocking his body so hard, Lance’s cock was rubbing against the sheets, adding to that pleasure mounting so thick he could taste it.

“Wait,” said Keith, pulling out. The sudden withdrawal of pleasure kicked Lance’s brain into a frenzy. Nooooo Keith, why? But then Lance felt the bed shift as Keith lay himself behind him and his arm gently guided Lance as he rolled onto his side into a spooning position. “This okay?” asked Keith as he lined up his cock with Lance’s entrance again.

“More than okay,” said Lance, sighing as Keith entered him again. Okay, he was needy. He could understand that now. Keith tried to awkwardly reach around Lance’s front to stroke his cock, but Lance said, “Here” and lifted his leg straight up and out of the way, toes pointed.

Keith was aghast. “You’re so flexible,” said Keith giving a quick snap of the hips to emphasize his statement with a jolt of pleasure.

“All for you, babe.” Well, no. Lance just enjoyed stretching and moving his body, it kept his nervous energy at bay, but in the moment he was so very pleased he could impress him especially since Keith was the one bringing the beef to the relationship.

Keith started back up at a steady pace that felt incredible. He took his hand off Lance’s cock and reached for the lube (they were using the Earth lube, not the psychedelic red one) and Lance helped him lube up his cock. Now Keith was pounding into his ass and his hand was stroking his dick. Lance twisted his body so he could makeout with Keith at the same time and it was immediately the trifecta of sensations. If only he could bring his nipples into play, but like Keith was reading his mind, the arm that was underneath Lance, reached up and tweaked his nipple and the jolt just sent him racing towards orgasm.

Lance’s body was full of thick, red heat. He felt that connection again like when him and the Red lion synced up before forming Voltron, but a thousand times better. Lance was moaning little “oh” sounds into Keith’s mouth, fully aware that he sounded like a porn star, but not giving a fuck as he was tipping over that edge and there was fire in his gut that was speeding outwards through his body. He must’ve tightened because Keith was suddenly moaning too and they were cumming together. Their foreheads bumping together as their lips could barely move to kiss beyond moaning their pleasure.

Their bodies went slack at the same time, Lance dropping his leg, Keith wrapping his arm tightly around Lance. His breathing was deep, but Keith was sucking in big gasps of air having done most of the work. Keith gave him a squeeze then went to roll away, but that meant pulling out so Lance stopped him. “Wait, no rush.”

“There’s a cleanup that needs to happen,” said Keith. He was holding out his palm like he didn’t now what to do with it. “Probably a shower, clean the sheets…”

“These sheets are toast,” said Lance. “I’mma burn the sheets.”

“Burn them? Seriously?”

“No, not seriously, but I just want you to stay put for a bit.”

“Why?”

“Because I always thought the idea of staying inside someone post-romp was sweet, but never found a situation where I wanted to… Until now.”

“Okay,” said Keith, in that little voice he does when he’s unsure. He wiped his hand on the sheets.

“Hey!”

“You said you were going to burn them.”

“Obviously I’m going to wash them, but I’m insulted because you used to lick up my cum and now…”

“I already swallowed your cum,” argued Keith. “There is only so much of your cum I can eat and wow this is a strange conversation.”

“You love it,” said Lance.

“Remember before when you said you were outside of your comfort zone? I’m in a different time zone than my comfort zone right now,” lamented Keith.

“That’s funny,” said Lance. “You made a joke.”

“If something’s funny, people usually laugh.”

“If you make a funny joke, then I will.”

“I hate you,” muttered Keith, cuddling all close to Lance. Lance could still feel him inside him, but it wasn’t full like before, but it was still nice. 

“Then you wouldn’t be here,” said Lance.

Lance could actually feel Keith’s shrug. “The sex is good. I understand why they call you Loverboy Lance.” Lance got a little thrill from hearing Keith use his Voltron Show stage name, but he felt a correction was in order.

“Okay, but you should know I didn’t really earn that title. When it comes to sex I usually range from awkward to pretty good actually. With you I’m next level so that’s not a me thing, that’s an us thing.”

“An us thing...,” repeated Keith. “I’ve never had sex with anyone else so I thought this was standard.”

“Are you kidding me?” gasped Lance. “We’re having mind blowing sex, but you think it’s average?”

“No, I just thought sex was this amazing thing that I’m only now discovering.”

“I’m spoiling you,” said Lance with a headshake. He turned his head and twisted so he could look at Keith when he said, “You’re ruined for others.”

“I’m okay with that,” said Keith and Lance felt that heart swelling feeling he got when Keith said just the right thing. “But regarding our earlier conversation maybe we should just agree we’re not going to sleep with anyone else.”

Lance stared so hard at Keith, he felt his eyes bugging out. “We are trapped on this journey together! Who else am I going to sleep with?”

That’s when Keith really did pull out of him so he could prop himself up and look down at Lance when he said, “There are seven others on this trip with us and you are bisexual which means they are all on the table for you. It’s not crazy for me to want you to say we’re exclusive. Especially when one of them…” Keith trailed off and Lance got this terrified feeling that Keith had stopped short of bringing up Allura. No, he needed to steer clear of the topic of his former crush on Allura because if Keith brought it up, Lance would feel pressure to tell him about him dying for her and Keith was way too fragile emotionally to hear it and Lance knew deep in his heart that it didn’t matter. Allura was the past. Keith was the present. “You could have your pick,” muttered Keith, thankfully not privy to Lance’s inner freak out.

“I have my pick,” said Lance. “I pick you and I’m sticking with you.” And he knew when he said it, it was true. Keith felt right. He wished he’d figured out his feelings sooner.

Keith leaned in and gave him a soft kiss then he leaned back and said, “Good. Because it’s a long trip home.”

Lance smiled then wait… Why bring up the length of the trip? Were they only together for the journey? Was this a time passing thing? Also, they agreed to exclusive sex yet neither of them said they were dating. Should Lance clarify? Should he ask if they were boyfriends? No, it had been three days. It was too soon for boyfriend commitment. Ugh, why did he keep thinking he’d had the conversation he needed to have with Keith only to realize he hadn’t said what he’d wanted at all.

Lance’s head was spinning and he probably would have blurted some of it out loud if Keith hadn’t sat up and said, “I’m showering.”

Lance wasn’t good at focusing on two things at once, which is why his brain latched on to that. “I’ll join you.”

“We both can’t fit,” said Keith.

“Challenge accepted!”


	7. Robot Lions in flight, mid-morning delight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A daytime BJ means risking getting caught.

Keith woke up Lance before he left so he could kiss him goodbye. Lance fell right back asleep and woke up before Keith made his obnoxious, “Everybody up!” announcement. He really needed to talk to Keith about finding a gentler way to wake everyone. Maybe some soothing rainforest sounds? Of course they had no access to music beyond the electronica Pidge was writing with her spare time, which was literally all the time because there was nothing else to do. It was terrible, both the spare time and the electronica. Anyway, maybe Keith could just make rain forest sounds to wake them up.

Lance changed into his Paladin suit, skipping showering since he’d had one last night. )For the record, him and Keith could not both fit and what he wanted to be a sexy adventure turned into taking turns showering.) He didn’t feel like eating breakfast. He was never a breakfast person and he was sick of eat freeze-dried rations. Maybe Hunk would have some fresh ingredients in Yellow and he’d send over a meal later in the day. 

Still groggy, Lance climbed into the Red’s pilot seat. He checked the view, but there was nothing threatening or new to note. The stars were out there, but they were back to being stars instead of candle flames. For once there wasn’t any chatter over the comlink. Maybe everyone was as tired as he was and weren’t in the mood for talking. The quiet was welcoming because it meant he could rest his eyes for a bit without being disturbed.

A ZAP! startled Lance back awake. Normally that signaled Keith had teleported in for their nightly rendezvous, but this time Lance was surprised to discover he was in Red’s pilot seat yet there was Keith with his wolf and he looked angry.

“You still have your comlink set to Do Not Disturb,” snapped Keith, walking over to Lance’s console. “Everyone’s been trying to contact you for the past hour. We thought you were dead.” Keith clicked a few buttons and a message popped up showing he had dozens of missed calls as the usual comlink chatter filled the air. Hunk seemed to be in the middle of naming all the Earth spices he knew in alphabetical order then naming the corresponding alien spice he’d found that tasted the closest. Lance had heard him go over this list twice before. It was boring.

“There,” said Keith, satisfied.

“It’s not my fault,” said Lance. “You’re the one that forgot to reset it last night.”

Keith spun on him and pointed a finger in his face. “Learn to use your console. It’s ridiculous that you can’t.”

Keith went to place his hand on his wolf to teleport back away, but Lance threw up his hands in protest. “Wait, no. Stay a bit. I never see you in the day hours.”

“I have to get back,” said Keith, still sounding pissed off.

“And do what exactly? The Lions are on autopilot –”

“Lance –”

“- And I miss you during the day.”

Keith’s expression went from angry to startled to soft to serious to embarrassed. He turned and hit a key on the console and an Altean message popped up that Lance recognized as meaning ‘MUTE.’ Oops. Hope no one was paying attention when Lance told Keith he missed him. “I miss you too, but I told everyone I’d get you back online and head back.”

“We’ll it’s not like if you take five minutes longer they’re going to assume we’re fucking.” Lance stood up, drawn to Keith, wanting to be sucked in by his gravitational pull. He was so cute when he was pissed off. Why hadn’t Lance noticed that before?

“I should go.” Keith reached out for his wolf, but the doggo zapped away right before he could touch him. Best wingman ever that pooch.

“Just kiss me hello already,” said Lance.

Keith bent at the waist to kiss him, deliberately keeping his body far back enough so he didn’t risk touching Lance. Boy, he was really in ‘fearless leader mode’ during waking hours. Their lips met and within three seconds Keith was relenting and taking that step closer to press himself against him because Lance too had gravity.

“We can’t fuck during the day,” said Keith, all tension out of his voice.

“Just hand stuff then,” said Lance, rocking his hips against Keith’s. The effect wasn’t great in their armor, but the intentions were sexy.

“Lance…,” groaned Keith.

“Fine. Mouth stuff.”

Instead of answering Keith just hugged him like he the needed the comfort. Like his feelings and needs were too much and he needed Lance to reassure him that they’d find a way to balance their team roles and their wants. Then Lance felt Keith’s lips on his neck and he knew he’d successfully convinced him.

Sex while wearing the paladin armor wasn’t all that tricky. If you removed the belt, you could pull down the thick leggings like they were normal pants to just past the hips. Any further and you needed start removing sections of the leg armor which is why Keith needed to sit with his legs still together and his bare ass in the pilot seat. It made blowing him a little more difficult since he couldn’t spread his legs open, but Lance was managing just fine, coming at it from a bit of an angle while Keith’s head rolled back, his breathing quick and shallow. 

Lance wished he’d known how much fun it was to give blowjobs then maybe he would’ve happily accepted his bi-ness way earlier. Lance could never get sick of this, watching Keith lose his mind with pleasure as Lance sucked on his cock. Listening to the other’s talk over the comlink while Lance lapped away at Keith’s dick was a strange juxtaposition, but he kinda liked being sneaky like this.

“- and then there’s Thyme,” said Hunk.

“You just mentioned Thyme. We’ve talked about Thyme,” groaned Pidge.

“No, I just did Taragon.”

“What’s the difference?” snapped Pidge.

“There’s a huge difference! Thyme has a woodsy flavour while Taragon –”

“I don’t actually care!”

“Fuck, I’m so close,” mumbled Keith. He put his hand on the back of Lance’s head, adding just a slight pressure as encouragement to speed up his pace. Lance obliged and Keith responded with a sputtered, “Lance…”

“Lonce!” Allura’s voice was the most jarring and terrifying sound Lance had ever heard especially because it was accompanied by that little BZZZ! noise that happens when a video chat window pops open. Lance hit the ground. “Keith, what are you doing in Red’s pilot seat?” asked Allura.

Noooooo! Noooooo! Allura was looking right at Keith! What did the camera capture? Was it just waist up? It had to be or Allura would be asking Keith why he had his dick out. Keith’s voice was drenched in panic when he answered, “I was just -”

“You’re red and drenched in sweat. Are you alright? Are you sick? Where’s Lance? Is he okay?”

“Keith is sick?” came Pidge’s voice next accompanied by the BZZZ! of her opening a video chat with Keith which was quickly followed by two more BZZZ’s as the Yellow and Black lions joined the video chat and more concerned voices flooded in.

“Are you okay, Keith?”

“What if it’s a space bug?”

“I haven’t heard Lance’s voice all morning, is he with you?”

“Do you need to rest?”

“You’re not going to puke, are you?”

Lance couldn’t’ do anything to rescue Keith. He could only stare up at the ceiling in horror. From his hiding spot on the floor he couldn’t see any of these chat windows, but he could kinda see Keith’s face which looked more and more agitated until Keith snapped and yelled, “I’m fine!”

This shut everyone up for a second, but then they all started asking questions at once again. That’s when Lance decided to crawl to safety.

“I’m sitting in the pilot seat because I’m trying to teach Lance to use his console and I’m red because we’ve been fighting about it the whole time!”

Silence again from the peanut gallery while Lance managed to make it to Red’s cockpit door.

“Well, that’s good,” said Pidge. “Lance needs to learn already.”

Lance popped himself up to standing then casually walked over and leaned into the frame like he didn’t have penis breath. “Oh hey, everyone. Sorry for the confusion. I was trying to teach myself the controls last night and I guess I accidentally put the thing on Do Not Disturb. Keith says he’s trying to teach me the buttons, but he’s being a real dick about it, hence the fighting.”

“Language, Lance,” warned Shiro.

“Sorry,” shrugged Lance. “It’s just when I think Keith, I think dick.” Keith’s face turned a deeper shade of red. “Seriously though, will we ever learn to get along?”

“I’ll be right back,” said Keith before smashing a button that closed all the chat windows. He sat there with his face in his hand for several tense moments before saying, “We can never hook up during the day again.”

“So that means you don’t want me to finish you off?” Lance was looking down at Keith’s lap. Despite all the confusion and embarrassment, Keith was still semi-hard.

“Yes, finish me,” said Keith. “But then we never do this during the day again.”

Keith got rid of some of that embarrassed tension and stress by cumming into Lance’s mouth minutes later. Lance expected him to pop back to Black immediately to ward off the mounting suspicious from the others, but instead he sat Lance down and repaid him in kind. After Lance had watched with satisfaction as Keith licked stray cum from his lips, Keith took the time to point out the different communication based menus and buttons on his console for future use. Lance lied and said he understood when really he was already confused again, but he only needed to know the Do Not Disturb function when Keith was over so he figured it was all good.


	8. Eight Crazy Nights (of Keith)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eight quick nights of action including a strip tease. Plus Lance has an uncomfortable talk with Krolia.

On the first night of Keith, Lance was wondering if he had time to do a face mask before bae arrived when Keith teleported into the cargo hold, still dressed in his Paladin suit and said, “suit up and meet me in Red’s cockpit in five minutes!” before teleporting away.

Lance striped out of his pajamas and got on his armor. He was just clicking the final panel in place as he stepped into Red’s cockpit, helmet under his arm. Keith was already waiting there, leaning casually against the pilot seat. “Just under four minutes. You’ve got good hustle.” Then he grabbed Lance’s helmet from under his arm and tossed it to the floor before pulliing Lance into a kiss. 

Lance pulled back and said, “Wait. What about the battle?”

“What battle?” asked Keith.

“The one I needed to wear armor to,” exclaimed Lance.

“There’s no battle.”

“Then why am I wearing this?”

“Because,” said Keith, taking Lance by the arm and the waist and spinning him so his back was to him. “I wanted you this way.” Keith kissed the back of his neck and Lance finally clued in on what was going on here. “I’ve been thinking about it all day.” Keith was already working on unhooking Lance’s belt.

“But team leader,” said Lance, all innocent. “I can only obey direct orders.”

“Bend over,” said Keith. “That’s an order.”

Lance was a very good Paladin indeed and he did follow orders. That night he discovered while bent over and leaning his hands on the back of his pilot seat that those leggings did push down far enough to expose his ass. This was indeed important and useful knowledge.

On the second night of Keith, Lance introduced him to the dildo, which he had not immediately recognized as a dildo so there was a long explanation process before they decided to get down and dirty. Lance let Keith fuck him with it. It was erotic as hell.

On the third night, Lance convinced Keith to try the dildo on himself. He kissed him and stroked him to keep him relaxed as Keith worked the toy into himself, stretching out that pretty ass of his. “Fuck Keith, I’m so jealous right now.”

“Jealous?”

“I want to be the one inside you.”

“Wait…”

Lance blushed realizing maybe that was an outrageous thing. “Are you strictly a top?” demanded Lance. “I assumed we’d eventually... Like I want to…”

“I…um… We will.”

Lance grinned all goofy, diving in for another kiss, but he froze again when Keith added, “Not yet.”

“Right. Whenever you’re comfortable,” said Lance. “I’m just glad it’s not off the table.”

On the fourth night of Keith, Lance decided to be patient and recommended they give the red lube a shot again. He fell asleep with his head on Keith’s shoulder and an icepack in his lap.

On the fifth night of Keith, Lance asked if he felt any more ready in regards to bottoming. “No, we like actually have to wait,” answered Keith.

“We have to wait?” Lance was so confused, but thought maybe it was a body issue so he didn’t press the matter. He’d get his chance. Eventually.

On the sixth night of Keith, while cuddled up close and naked on Lance’s tiny bed in the cargo hold of Red, he decided to broach the subject one more time before he vowed to drop it forever. “So like when you said we have to wait, is that like a body issue?”

“No, more like a timing issue,” said Keith which was just as vague.

There was one theory Lance had been floating around in his brain, but he was nervous to bring up the topic. “Does that mean you’re waiting for your… heat?”

“My what?”

“Your Galra heat. Like a special time of the month you get all hot and bothered and like need the D.”

“Like a cat?” squeaked Keith.

“Yeah, ‘cause Galra are kinda cat… like?”

“I’m not a cat, Lance!” snapped Keith. He was so annoyed, he sat straight up.

“I know that! Trust me, I looked for a tail the first time I saw you naked. All I’m saying is you might share characteristics with the feline species.”

“I’m not a cat!”

“Then what do you mean by timing?”

“Maybe it’s a private reason!”

“Okay, I can respect that,” said Lance in his most even voice. Keith lay back down beside him. Silence and then Lance popped up to sitting. “No, I can’t respect that. Keith, please tell me! I’m so curious and I want you so badly and I have so much time on my hand to wonder what you mean and it’s driving me crazy.”

“Fine. I’ll tell you,” groaned Keith, sitting up on the bed beside Lance. “Remember how I told you on the space whale -”

“Still weird that you can say the words ‘space whale’ so casually, but go on.”

“- we would see flashes of past of the future? Well, I actually saw the first time I, um, bottom so I know the circumstances for when it’s going to happen.” Keith was blushing and looking away.

“Okay, so many thoughts at once. First, did your mom see that one too? Second, if you saw a vision of us having sex again then why were you so sure I’d reject you when you came back? Three, how can you tell from the circumstances when it’s going to be? Why can’t it be tonight?”

“First, yes and it was awful, but almost as punishment I had to see a time flash of my parents doing it. Second, at the time I didn’t know if any of the future visions I saw would come true because without context I couldn’t make sense of them. So far only one thing I saw with Shiro happened so I wasn’t certain the one with you was real until you and I got together again. Third, I know it’s not tonight because it happens in a different location.”

“Like the Black Lion?”

“No.”

“Blue? Green? Yellow?”

“No. It’s nowhere we’ve been yet. I didn’t recognize it.”

“Wow. You don’t know how excited I am that we’re going to go somewhere that isn’t the Lions. The fact that I’m going to top you is just icing on the cake.”

“I’m glad you’re happy,” said Keith, hugging his knees to his chest. “I was scared to explain it to you.”

“Keith, you can tell me anything. I want to hear all about the space whale and what it was like to witness your own conception. Give me your stories. I’m psyched to hear them.”

“Thanks for saying that. I hesitate to talk about the time I was away. I worry it’s a sore spot with you still.”

“Honestly, I’m glad you had that time to get to know your mom it’s just…”

“You’re not happy at all,” said Keith, sensing Lance’s mood shift.

“No, I… I could’ve handled being apart from you. I just needed some reassurance that you were coming back.”

“Lance…” Keith took his hand and began playing with his fingers, keeping his eyes on their entwined digits. “I know there’s a lot of talk about going home to Earth. Everyone misses the family they left there, but I don’t have anyone left on Earth. Earth is the place where everyone I loved left me. When I think about returning home, I think about you…” For once, Lance was actually speechless. “Can you say something? I don’t care it’s stupid, just please react to what I just said.”

“I’m touched,” said Lance, letting the emotion in his voice say it all.

On the seventh night, it was the day of rest. Lance went to bed and fell dead asleep as soon as he head hit the pillow. Everyone on the team was taking turns staying awake to keep watch over night. Pidge had designed a rotation that had Romelle, Coran, Shiro, and Krolia doing twice as many shifts since they were less essential. If they were to find themselves in a battle scenario, the Paladins needed to be as well rested as possible. Still, occasionally one of the Paladins had to take a night shift. It was Keith’s night so Lance figured he wouldn’t hear from him. At least he thought…

Lance jolted awake to the sound of an emergency call coming in. He leapt out of bed and ran into the cockpit and hit accept on the call. He was fully prepared for a Galra battle to break out, but instead the video call was from his favourite Galra.

“Keith, I didn’t think I’d hear from you tonight.”

“I know, but I’m bored and I missed you,” said Keith and Lance was touched. “Also…” Keith tapped something on his console and the camera zoomed out and now Lance could see Keith had his dick out and it was hard.

“That kind of miss me. Got it. What do you expect me to do from here?”

“I dunno. Seduce me without touching me,” said Keith with a bit of a grin, resting his chin on his tented fingers. “Consider it an order.”

“Like a strip tease?” asked Lance, wiggling his eyebrows.

“That’ll work,” said Keith. He tapped a few buttons and suddenly one of Pidge’s terrible electronica songs started playing over the speakers in his cockpit. “Can’t dance without music.”

“I dunno,” said Lance. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin in a strip tease. Maybe I’d just -?” Lance tore open his pj shirt, sending buttons scattering. Then he ran his hands down his bare chest while gyrating to the music. “Oh wait, that’s right. Magic Mike is one of my favourite movies.”

“Lance,” gasped Keith, slapping a hand across his mouth, his face turning a deep shade of red. “Quiznak. I didn’t think you’d actually do it! Or that you’d be good at it! I was teasing you!”

“Now I’m teasing,” said Lance, discarding his shirt. “Wait until you see me twerk.”

Keith had wrapped his arm across his face and was laughing into his elbow. “No, it’s too much. Come over here. I’m sending my wolf to get you.”

“No way,” said Lance, pulling down the waistband of his pants just a bit to tease. “I want you to watch the show and I want you to touch yourself while you do.” Lance was tenting in his pants. Having Keith watch him was surprisingly hot.

“Okay. Continue,” said Keith, still a bit of laugh in his voice.

“Plus I’ve never seen you smile like this,” said Lance. “And it’s the most beautiful sight in the universe.” When Keith met his eye Lance felt this surge of joy in his heart and he knew he was really truly stuck on Keith.

On the eighth day, Lance was having trouble keeping track of what real life was. There were these nights with Keith that felt so alive and vivid, but were completely secret from his daytime life, which was a whole lot of sitting in the pilot seat wondering if anything would come around to try to kill them. Not that he wanted that to happen, but it would break up the monotony. The only change he saw during the day was maybe having a passenger come over to hangout. Usually Coran, Romelle, or Shiro. Lance normally loved to talk, but seeing the same faces everyday was dragging on his energy. Having Allura, Pidge, and Hunk only exist as voices in the air was bizarre. Listening to Keith be the faithful leader of Voltron during the day and his dirty daddy at night was maddening.

Today at least felt a little different as out of nowhere Krolia decided to be his flight companion. This woke up Lance enough to realize he’d never had a conversation before with Krolia and he really didn’t know how to begin the small talk with the mother of the man he was currently riding like a mechanical bull every night.

“So…,” began Lance after what felt like an eternity of silence, but was likely closer to fifteen minutes. “You like… knives?” Nailed it. Or stabbed it, rather.

“I do like knives,” said Krolia in that balanced yet unsettling voice of hers. “I like how I can use them to slaughter my enemies. In fact I know three different points on the human body where the blood will drain out with a slice the size of a pinprick. No one would know how you died.”

“Wait? You? As in me? Are we talking about murdering me here?” Lance wondered if he needed to send out a distress signal. “Is this about me and Keith?” Krolia just locked him in a dead stare. He’d take that as a yes. “Look. I’m sorry if I took your baby boy’s innocence, but it was consensual and yeah, I’m a dude and I can’t give you grandbabies if that’s the problem, but men can love other men.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Okay, so the gay thing doesn’t bother you?”

“The what thing?”

“Galra doesn’t have gay? Or all Galra are gay?” No response. Krolia just glared at him for a really long time. “Is this a race thing? You know you really can’t complain about Keith banging a human because you did it first and hey, that’s how you got Keith.” More staring. Oh no. What else could it be? “And for the record, I’m totally cool with Keith being half Galra. I’m biracial too. I’m tri-bi which is a term I invented that means bisexual, biracial, and ‘bidextrous, which is what I shortened ambidextrous too so it fits with the bi theme.” Still just staring. “I don’t know what I’m doing wrong in regards to Keith. What is it, Krolia?”

“I’m going to make one thing clear,” said Krolia. “If you ever hurt Keith, I will stab you.”

“Hurt Keith? I don’t want to hurt Keith. I really like Keith. I like like-like Keith! Wait, do you know what like-liking is? It’s an Earth term.”

“Regardless of your ridiculous pet names for your feelings, if you hurt Keith, my revenge will be swift.”

“Wait… Do you know something?” asked Lance. “Like did you see something happen in one of those time flashes you saw in the in the Quantum Soup? Do I hurt Keith?”

Krolia was silent. She had one hell of a poker face.

“Look, I never want to hurt Keith. He’s my favourite person in the whole universe. If somehow I screw up and hurt him without meaning to, can you just tell me? Maybe the future isn’t written yet. Maybe you and I can actively work to change destiny, like Back to the Future style.” Suddenly Lance remembered he was talking to an alien. “Sorry. Back to the Future is a movie from Earth and a movie is –”

“I’ve seen it,” said Krolia, which was probably more shocking to Lance than when she promised to drain the blood from his body. “It’s the one where the boy goes back in time and tries to have sex with his mom.”

“Wow. So much information there. I don’t know whether to grab onto the fact that you’ve seen Back to the Future or that you fundamentally misunderstood what it was about. See, it was the mom trying to have sex with her son, but she didn’t know he was her son.”

“How is that better?” asked Krolia.

“Oh, it’s not,” agreed Lance.

“I prefer the third one.” Krolia shrugged. “With the cowboys.”

Lance blinked. “Wait? Have you seen a lot of movies?”

“I lived on Earth for two years,” said Krolia like this was obvious. “In a shack in the desert with nothing to do, but breast feed all day and Keith was a finicky eater. I was stuck sitting for hours at a time.”

“Keith hated the boob, huh? That tracks. So what’s your favourite movie? Independence Day? Annihilation? Men in Black? Pacific Rim? I’m assuming in all of these you were routing for the aliens.”

“Please,” scoffed Krolia. “I’d never cheer for those racist depictions. If aliens invade Earth we’ll be far more efficient. Besides, my favourite movie is Julie and Julia.”

“Wait… the cooking one? With Meryl Streep?”

Krolia gave him that cold stare again then she shrugged. “And I like Kill Bill.”

“Oh Tarantino! Nice! Volume one or volume two?”

“Listen,” said Krolia. “I came here to communicate one thing, that if you hurt Keith, I will slice off every piece of you that protrudes from your tiny human body. Understand?”

Lance gulped. “Yes… But what happens if Keith hurts me? Do I get to live?”

Krolia whistles and the wolf ZAP’d into the cockpit. Krolia lay a gentle hand on the back of his neck. “You’ll live.” The ZAP! She was gone.

Lance will live? Does Keith hurt Lance in the future? Does Lance hurt Keith? Did Krolia actually know something or was she just being a mama Galra to her cub? Lance felt kinda sick about the whole thing and couldn’t relax the entire day.

When Keith arrived that night, Lance was waiting for him, sitting up on his bed. “You okay?” asked Keith, sensing Lance’s low mood. He came to sit beside him, placing a gentle hand on his back.

“I don’t know. I had a talk with your mom today.”

“Yeah, she told me,” said Keith, all casual.

“Did she tell you about it?”

“She said it was a good talk.”

“Good talk? Keith she threatened to dismember me if I hurt you.”

“Oh… She shouldn’t have said that,” said Keith, his tone apologetic. “Sorry. I guess she’s a bit protective.”

“Protective is an understatement. How much does she know about us?”

“Well, she knows I sleep over. I couldn’t exactly hide the fact that I’m sneaking out every night from her.”

“But does she know something bigger? Like from the time flashes? She seemed really certain I was going to hurt you. It really wigged me out.”

“I never saw anything like that,” said Keith. “And honestly it doesn’t feel like something you’d do. I trust you, Lance. And I’ll talk to my mom. She really shouldn’t be threatening to dismember my boyfriend.”

“Oh thank you! You said it!” exclaimed Lance in blissful relief.

“Said what?” questioned Keith.

“You called me your boyfriend. I really wanted to ask if we were dating, but I was scared this was just a friends with benefits thing.”

“What are you talking about? We discussed this last week and decided to be exclusive.”

“I thought you meant in the sack!”

“I meant dating! Wait… are you seeing someone else?”

“No, Keith! Geez! I just thought maybe it was too early to say we were boyfriends.”

Keith gave him the most exhausted look. “I have experienced more time than you. I’ve literally liked you for years. Nothing is too soon. Plus I promised you my firsts so you’re my first boyfriend.”

At some point they’d started holding hands, Lance hadn’t noticed when it started, but Keith’s thumb kept rubbing against he back of his palm and it felt like the most comforting thing in the universe. He’d never known security like holding Keith’s hand and hearing him call him his boyfriend. “So if we’re official and your mom knows and probably Shiro, maybe we should tell everyone?”

“Really?” questioned Keith, seeming just a bit freaked.

“Yeah, why not? I mean, we either tell them now or months from now. And every single day is the same so what difference does it make?”

“Yeah, but you realize this is a bit more than just declaring we’re dating. This is us coming out as gay and bisexual. That’s a big step. You only just came out to yourself. Are you ready to tell people?”

That was a good point. Lance hadn’t thought of that. “Well, it is a big deal. But the team is practically our family. I expect a lot of mocking from Pidge and Hunk and maybe some surprise from Allura considering I used to hit on her… a long, long time ago, but otherwise they’re going to be happy we’re happy.”

“Okay,” agreed Keith. “Let’s do it. Let’s tell everyone.”

Lance leaned in and kissed Keith. He was so incredibly happy right now. He hadn’t even admitted to himself how scared he was that he didn’t mean to Keith what Keith meant to him, but now finally things felt solid. Like he’d been flying in a space ship for so long then suddenly he was stepping out onto solid ground.

Tired and happy, they made love slowly for once. There was no urgency or uncertainty just a feeling they could gradually build together. It felt like ages before Lance came and sleep found him soon after. The day time routine was pretty much the same with Keith waking him to say goodbye and then less than an hour later hearing Keith’s voice announce over the comlink it was time to get up.

Lance felt happy as he settled into his pilot seat. They hadn’t worked out how they’d tell everyone, but Lance figured he’d probably just blurt it out himself at some point today. It would be good to be out in the open like that. Too bad he was so sleepy. He could hardly keep his eyes open and then he was drifting off in his seat. His mind heading off to somewhere absurd with crazy bright colours…

“Hello and welcome to another episode of the craziest game in the galaxy: GARFLE WARFLE SNICK!”


	9. You give love a bad Kogane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith wins the gameshow, but fails the test.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATED NOTE!!!!! I am simply updating the note at the beginning of the chapter in hopes notifying those subscribed that the first chapter of the third work in this series in now up (and the second chapter will follow later today!) Hit next work to keep reading. I highly recommend subscribing to the series https://archiveofourown.org/series/1159664 as there will be at least four parts to it OR subscribing to me as a user and that way you will always get update notications on all future works in the series. You can also simply bookmark the series to read at your own pace.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading!!!
> 
> BBBK xoxoxox
> 
>  
> 
> p.s. Yes, I know Kogane doesn't rhyme with name.

These stage lights were too bright and too hot. Lance’s skin was itching and there was a good chance he had the beginnings of a chemical burn. Despite this, he had to keep his cool for the audience (which he couldn’t actually see because of the lights) and those watching at home. Actually, he liked that part. Lance could’ve had a career in show business if he hadn’t been abducted from his home world by a sentient robot cat.

“It looks like the Paladins have just made it into the final round!”

What the quiznak? Lance had just been floating in a tank of goo and now he was back at the podium? He checked his face. Did he still have a face? Face still there so face – check!

“What the…” muttered Pidge who had seemingly teleported back to the podiums as well.

“Okay, I know I’ve said this before many times,” said Hunk, “but this is the freakiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“One of you will be allowed to leave the game,” said Bob, scooting his little green body over in his ridiculous hover chair which actually looked really fun and Lance wished he could try it. “The rest of you will be staying here with me forever. You have blazzle hoochas to write down your choice for who should get to escape on the screen in front of you. Go!”

Privacy screens shot up between their podiums, as obnoxious music played followed by the countdown music.

‘Okay, so this is obvious,’ though Lance. ‘I write down Keith because he’s who I want to save. No wait! Saving Keith means he leaves and I’m stuck here for eternity Keith-less. No, we both need to stay so I should pick someone else. I wonder who Pidge and Hunk are writing down…’

Lance leaned forward and peaked around the privacy screen to try to glimpse what they’d written. He couldn’t see. Lance hunched down and scratched his head with his pencil. ‘I’ll write down Allura. She has magic powers so maybe she can use them to save the rest of us? Wait. No. Keith would be so jealous if I wrote down Allura. He’d take it completely the wrong way.’ 

“Final hoochas,” warned Bob. “Make your selection everyone.”

‘No, I have to save Keith. Even if he leaves, at least I know he’s safe and I can live with that knowledge for the rest of eternity.’ Confident now in his decision, Lance wrote down Keith’s name. The hoochas ran out and the privacy screens lowered.

“Hunk, let’s start with you. Who’d you vote for?”

Hunk had voted for Allura and Allura had voted for Pidge, which was interesting. Did Hunk like Allura? Did Allura like Pidge? Was everyone voting for their crushes? Or was that just Lance?

“Lance, who got your vote?”

“I voted for Keith,” said Lance, confidently. “He’s our leader, plus he’s half Galra, so I think he’s, like the future.” These words felt true. Lance had been thinking of Allura as his past and Keith as his present, but he felt now that Keith was also his future.

“Keith, the leader, who do you think deserves to make it out of here, huh?” Keith’s screen lit up and Bob looked at it with surprise. “Lance?” Sweet. They’d chosen each other or television or whatever the fuck this was. This was a grand romantic gesture for sure. “Why Lance?”

Now to hear he’s boyfriend’s true feelings. ‘Tell ‘em I’m your home, Keith,’ thought Lance. ‘Just like you said last night.’

“I just don’t want to be stuck here for an eternity with Lance.”

Lance had his response locked and loaded. “Aw thanks, man.” Then what Keith had said finally registered with him. “Wait, what?”

*********

When Keith arrived Lance was sitting on his bed, legs crossed and nervously bouncing the top leg. He was wearing his street clothes because this conversation called for serious clothing. That and he’d ripped the buttons off his pj top two days ago and he never found all of them again. 

“Hey... what’s going on?” asked Keith when he arrived. 

“Keith, what the hell?” exclaimed Lance. 

Keith let out a laugh. “I know, right? That was crazy today.”

“No! Well, yes, it was coo coo bananas nuts, but I’m not what-the-hell-ing over being sucked into a magical game show hosted by an omnipresent deity named Bob, I’m what-the-helling you letting me down in there!”

“I let you down?” asked Keith. “How?”

“First of all, I got called dumb like forty thousand times and you never stood up for me.”

“I did,” said Keith. “I called Bob a jerk.”

“You called him a jerk after we got back, that does not count as defending me. And not only that but what was with your answer? That you didn’t want to get stuck with me?”

“Oh that,” said Keith with a dismissive tone.

“Yeah that!” Repeated Lance. 

“I chose you. What else do you want?”

“Keith, did you hear my reason for choosing you? I called you the future. I put my feelings out there.”

“Well, I couldn’t give the real answer,” argued Keith.

“Why not?”

“Because everyone would know.”

“Seriously? Keith, last night we agreed we’d tell everyone we’re together and today you had the perfect opportunity to declare it to the team - and whoever was watching at home if that was even a real show - and instead you cracked a joke.”

“I was on the spot!” squeaked Keith. “It was embarrassing!”

“Right, I understand,” said Lance, bitterly. “It’s embarrassing to be the with ‘dumb one.’” 

“That’s not what I meant. Of course I’m not embarrassed of you!”

“Then why did you say what you said?” demanded Lance.

“I don’t know!” said Keith, throwing out his hands.

“You insulted me in front of everyone. Stuck with me, Keith? Is that how you really feel? You’re stuck with me? A year and a half together so we might as sleep together? Pass the time. It’s all adding up, you know. Sex is the only thing we do together. We don’t even talk much.”

“We’re talking now,” argued Keith.

“Yeah, and it sucks.” But that’s when Lance realized he’d ranted one step too far. “Keith, no that came out wrong. Sorry.” 

“So you can say the wrong thing and I can’t?” grumbled Keith.

“At least I apologized. You didn’t even say you were sorry.”

“I’m sorry okay,” said Keith, throwing out his arms, but then he added, “I’m sorry you picked the wrong person.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Lance.

“You could’ve picked Allura. You know you wanted to.”

“Oh, I did not want to pick Allura!” snapped Lance, so frustrated Keith would even bring her up. “We’re already together. You’ve been picked! Can you stop with the jealousy already?”

“I’m sorry it’s hard when I know I was your second choice!” yelled Keith.

“Keith, you are not a second choice,” cried Lance. “I don’t feel for Allura how I feel for you.”

“Don’t lie. Stop downplaying it. I know, okay?” Keith’s croaky voice filled with anguish. “I know you loved her. I saw it in your face everyday before I left so don’t pretend it wasn’t a big deal, just be honest with me. How can I trust you’ve moved past it when you’re still hiding it? It killed me then and it’s driving me crazy now.” 

“Keith, that isn’t fair,” said Lance through gritted teeth. “I didn’t even know you liked me back then. If I had maybe I would’ve realized I was bi earlier.”

“Oh, don’t do that. Don’t blame me for you not knowing your own sexuality.”

“I’m not trying to. I’m just saying I was immature then and didn’t know what I wanted.”

“And you do now?” asked Keith, sceptical.

“I chose you, Keith! I did it in front of everyone.”

“Well, next time I guess there’s a simple solution. Just pick Allura.” Keith whistled and in a literal flash the wolf appeared and ZAP’d him away. 

“Jokes on you because then not everyone would’ve gotten a vote and we’d still be stuck there for eternity!” Of course Keith didn’t hear him say that.

That was so unfair. Getting the last word in during a fight a teleporting out of there. Well, he wasn’t getting away with it. Lance sprinted to the cockpit and dropped down into the pilot sea then he paused, unable to remember how to privately hail the Black Lion. Fuck it! He slapped the general comlink button and shouted, “Keith, you do not get to have the last word then leave! Get back here so we can settle this!”

The comlink filled with the air with half a dozen voices protesting being woken up.

“What the quiznak, Lance?” groaned Allura.

“I’d just fallen asleep,” moaned Romelle.

“Can’t you two have your domestic during the daytime?” snapped Pidge.

“Why is everyone angry and yelling?” asked Hunk.

“Is everything okay?” asked Shiro, literally the only one of them concerned for Lance.

Finally Keith’s tense voice responded. “This isn’t the time. Go back to bed. That’s an order.”

Lance was fuming. “No! We’re talking! I have more to say!”

“Lance, if we actually had to listen to you until you were out of things to say,” said Pidge, “we’d be up all night. Please just shut up for once and let us sleep.”

Lance was going to say something scathing, but then Krolia’s voice came over the comlink. “Goodnight Lance.” Lance’s blood ran cold. He couldn’t argue with Krolia. He set his comlink to mute and went back to bed.

He tossed and turned for a long time, too angry to settle. Hours later he finally fell asleep only to wake up to a face pressed close to his. “Krolia?” he croaked. He could feel something cold and sharp pressed against his neck. Wait… Keith’s blade?

“I warned you,” hissed Krolia before drawing the blade back over her head and swinging it downwards… Lance shrieked himself awake. He threw off his blankets and jumped out of bed, frantically looking around for his attacker, but Krolia wasn’t there. He’d dreamed that. But wait… She’d promised to stab Lance if he hurt Keith so if she wasn’t here to kill him, did that mean Keith wasn’t hurt?

******

“Everybody up!” Did today’s wakeup call from Keith sound grouchier than usual or was it Lance’s imagination? The worst part about waking up was the split second before he remembered the awful fight he’d had with Keith the night before, but then it all hit him again like a ton of bricks and seeming to punctuate that shock of heartbreak he heard Hunk scream, “Ah!” followed by a groaning, “No…”

“Only a ninety-nine on the test? But I did all the extra credit,” muttered Pidge. She was having her reoccurring Garrison dream.

“Come on. Time to wake up!” Yes, Keith’s voice was definitely grumpier today. Good.

“Ah!” screamed Pidge, finally startling awake. “What a nightmare.”

Lance yawned. “What’s the point? We’re just floating in space. There’s no day or night here.” Today of all days, he just wanted to sleep, not listen to Keith’s disembodied voice bark orders over the comlink.

“I have to agree with Lance,” came the Princess’s sleepy voice. “We should sleep for fifteen more doboshes.”

“Guys, we can’t let this long journey make us soft or dull our skills,” said Keith. “Routine will keep us sharp.” Ugh. So this was how he was going to deal with fighting with Lance? By leaning super heavy into being the team leader while making what could be interpreted as passive aggressive comments. Sure, we don’t want us to go “soft.” We should swallow back our feelings and keep them a secret from everyone including your boyfriend.

“Keith’s right. Routine is what got me through being Zarkon’s prisoner,” said Shiro. “And being in the infinite void of the Black Lion.”

“I guess that does make you an expert on killing time,” agreed Lance, not that he wanted to follow his advice.

“Okay everyone, to your stations,” said Keith, in his authoritative voice. “Running battle simulations now.”

“Oh man,” groaned Lance.

“Can’t we just have breakfast first?” asked Hunk.

Lance changed into his armor while listening to the others moan about how they wouldn’t all be so tired this morning if only he hadn’t woken them all up by screaming over the comlink last night. They’d all had better sleeps than him though. They hadn’t woken up in the middle of the night believing that their boyfriend’s mother was trying to kill them in their sleep. And they certainly didn’t fall back asleep, clutching their bayards to their chests just in case their nightmare came true.

Lance felt awful as he sat down in his pilot seat and placed his hands on the controls. He didn’t want to be awake. He didn’t want be here, in the middle of space. He didn’t want to be fighting with Keith and having to pretend that wasn’t the case. Today was the worst. 

“I programmed a new battle simulation,” said Krolia. The simulation appeared on the screen in front of Lance. “I think it’s going to be especially challenging.” 

“Why do you sound happy about that?” asked Hunk.

“Like mother like son,” mumbled Lance.

“Focus!” barked Keith. Man, every time Lance said anything, Keith would snap. It was going to be a long ass day.

The simulator woke Lance up pretty quick, his instincts taking over and pushing away his low mood. He had to admit he got a lot of satisfaction out of Keith being the second to die in the simulation. Best pilot in a generation his ass. Of course Lance, Allura, and Pidge died shortly afterwards.

“That fictional planet seems harsh,” muttered Lance.

“I programmed the simulator to be unbeatable. I wanted to see how long you’d survive.” Why did everything Krolia said feel like a threat?

“Well, I hope you’re happy.”

“Food incoming!” announced Hunk, which at least gave Lance a bit of joy. It meant Keith’s wolf would be popping by with something fresh to eat for once. “Aw, what a good wolf…fella…guy. Oh my gosh, we really gotta come up with a name for this wolf. 

“Not gonna happen.” Keith was so negative today.

“Oh, come on. I vote Kosmo.”

“I like Kosmo,” said Allura.

“Kosmo is cool,” agreed Lance.

“Yeah, it’s nice,” said Pidge.

“We’re not calling him Kosmo,” said Keith, firmly.

The wolf Keith didn’t want to name Kosmo teleported into Lance’s cockpit to deliver his breakfast. 

“Oh, come on, Keith, we gotta call him something,” argued Hunk.

“I figure when he’s ready, he’ll tell me his name.” Keith had mentioned this to Lance late one night. Lance still thought it was dumb.

“So, Kosmo. Got it,” said Lance, because disagreeing with Keith today felt good. Lance bit into his breakfast wrap and Wow! “Oh! Hunk this is delicious!” Lance couldn’t remember the last time his taste buds actually felt happy.

“Yes, thank you, Lance. I made it collecting fungus paste from the dung of beetles on that last planet we stopped at for supplies.”

The word ‘dung’ forced Lance to eject the food from his mouth immediately. “Hunk, please! I don’t wanna know what it is. I just wanna eat it and pretend that it’s my meemaw’s home cooking.”

“A signal!” said Pidge, excitedly. Finally, something different!

The signal Pidge picked up turned out to be a secret Blade of Marmora signal. They followed it to a planet and Lance was so relieved to actually step out of his Lion. It was nice to see Allura, Pidge, and Hunk’s faces. The difficult part was Keith deliberately avoiding his eye. That stung. Yeah, their fight had been a bad one and Lance still felt Keith owed him an apology, but the fact that Keith didn’t even want to look at Lance right now, made him worry Keith would never want to look at him again.

Things on the mission turned ugly fast. What they thought had been the ruins of a great battle between the Blade and Haggar’s Druids turned out to be a trap, luring Blade members to their death. Luckily they made it out of there alive, mostly do to some quick thinking on Kosmo and Keith’s part and some brut magical strength from Allura. They even rescued Kolivan who was being held against his will by the Druid occupying that planet. Krolia chose to leave with Kolivan to go reunite whatever was left of the Blade. The rest of them got back into their Lions and resumed their journey.

Lance lay in bed that night repaying his fight with Keith over and over in his mind. He was hurt and disappointed in Keith, that hadn’t changed. But he was letting go of the idea that he’d been perfectly innocent.

It wasn’t entirely a surprise when Keith teleported into Red’s cargo hold when all the Lions had grown quiet and everyone was fast asleep. Lance sat up in bed, allowing his eyes to adjust to the low light, taking in the silhouette of the boy and his wolf standing in front of him. Keith didn’t send Kosmo away this time. He was unsure if he was welcome.

“Hey,” said Lance.

“Hey,” echoed Keith.

Lance didn’t invite him to bed, but stood up. He walked up to Keith and pulled him into a light hug. Keith returned the hug with equally light pressure. “I’m sorry about all those Blade members,” murmured Lance.

“Thank you,” said Keith.

“And I’m sorry your mom left.”

“Thanks.” Their arms fell to their sides. “I miss her… but I miss you too.” Lance allowed himself to feel a tinge of joy. Keith had been passive agreesive towards Lance all day. It hadn’t read as “Can we talk?”

Without answering, Lance gestured to the bed and they sat down beside each other. He waited a moment while Keith collected his thoughts. Kosmo settled himself down on the floor and lay his chin on his paws.

“I thought about our fight a lot and I can see now why you were upset. Had I told everyone my real reason for choosing you to leave, it would’ve been a nice gesture. I’m sorry I froze up and gave a bullshit answer. I know my reasons for doing so suck, I felt embarrassed putting myself out there and I’m not good at coming up with words on the spot, but I also know I can try harder. For you.”

“Thank you,” said Lance.

“It was a good opportunity to tell everyone we’re together… were together… and I messed it up.” While Keith spoke, Lance crept his fingers across the bed towards his hand, intending to hold it. “And I’m sorry I picked a fight about Allura. I know she was only ever just a crush.” Lance’s fingers froze inches from Keith’s hand. He withdrew his hand back into his lap.

“Keith, while we’re being honest, I need to tell you about something that happened with Allura.” Panic spread across Keith’s face and Lance reassured him as quickly as possible. “We didn’t sleep together or kiss or anything like that.” Keith relaxed a little. “But when you were away there was this battle and I used my Lion to push Allura’s out of the way of an energy blast. It hit me instead and the force of it… I died.”

“Wha – wha – how is that possible?” Keith asked, his voice drenched in emotion.

“I think the electricity made my heart stop, but Allura came into my Lion and she used her magical healing powers and brought me back. So basically I did Shiro’s whole died-and-brought-back-to-life-by-Allura thing before it was cool.”

“How can you joke about this?” asked Keith, clearly horrified. “You died and I wasn’t there.” Keith squeezed his eyes shut like the truth of it was too painful to look at.

“There’s more…”

“There’s more?” croaked Keith.

“After she brought me back I was so grateful I… I kinda convinced myself I was in love with her.”

“You were in love with her?” Keith stood up as he said this. Kosmo stood up too, looking at Keith, awaiting his instructions.

“No, I thought I was,” corrected Lance, worried Keith would just take off. “Something really scary happened to me and I didn’t want to focus on the bad of it. I didn’t want to think about how I died. I chose to focus on the miracle of being brought back and I did that thing serious car accident victims do where they fall love with their doctors. It wasn’t a real feeling, it just felt real!”

“You’re describing feelings!” yelled Keith.

Frustrated Lance said, “Keith, you were gone and you gave me no indication I’d ever see you again. I was lonely. I was caught in a war. I had no one to confide in. I tried to bury all that awful painful shit by focusing my attention on another person, but you know what? It didn’t even work. She fell in love with Lotor and never even acknowledged my feelings.”

“And if she had?” questioned Keith. “Would you be with her now?”

Lance hesitated. “That depends.”

“That depends on what?” cried Keith.

“I don’t know, Keith! The question is a trap so I’m avoiding answering it!”

“It’s only a trap if the answer is yes!” snapped Keith.

“This isn’t fair! You weren’t an option!” Lance wanted to calm down. He needed to calm down. “Nothing physically happened. That’s what matters.”

“This is the information you’re giving me and I get to decide is it matters or not,” said Keith, less yell-y, but still mad. “What you’re telling me is you’ve as recently as a month ago were in love with one of the mere seven other people on this journey that’s going to take over a year and I’m supposed to just be okay with that?”

“It is not like that.”

“Were you or were you not in love with someone on this journey as recently as a month ago?” demanded Keith.

“Yes!” Lance yelled back. Keith looked so hurt and that meant he was a clueless idiot. “It was you, Keith! It’s always been you!” Lance paused as he realized how vulnerable he’d made himself out of impulse. “I did not want to tell you like this,” he said softly.

“You didn’t actually say it,” said Keith slowly, the anger having melted away. He looked at Lance, expectantly.

Lance let out a bitter chuckle. “Good.”

“Good?” repeated Keith, the word souring in his mouth.

“Yes, good,” said Lance firmly. “Because I’m not going to say it to stop an argument or defend myself or stroke your ego. I deserve a better context for saying it. This fight isn’t going to just end here and go away because you don’t trust me, Keith. And honestly, I don’t trust you either. You pushed me away and then blame me for not waiting for you? I had no hope for us. I had no one and I wanted Allura to be there for me and she wasn’t and that sucked. I know I said I forgave you for leaving, but really I don’t. I want to and I can pretend I do, but I don’t. Maybe that’s because I’m never sure if you’re going to leave again. Even now you come and go and see me whenever you please, but I have no way to come to you or contact you and that makes us unequal and that sucks too.

“I put myself out there for you,” continued Lance. “I faced my fears over my sexual identity for you. What have you done for me besides move ever so slightly out of your comfort zone? And I know, you had a harder life than me, but that changed the moment we left Earth because we’re both in a war and we’ve both seen death and we’ve both killed.” Lance felt himself begin to cry, but he didn’t want to collapse. He wanted to push through. “I died. Two people I cared for broke my heart. I’m shattered into more pieces than I thought a person could break into and I just keep finding myself comforting you. But you won’t do the same for me. You won’t even admit to others that we’re dating. So no, I’m not going to say the words, ‘I love you’ so you can decide that I deserve you. So that we can go back to pretending this is working. So you can fuck me at night and treat me like a subordinate during the day. No. Because I’m tired and I just want to go home.”

Keith’s voice was quiet, but bitter, “It sounds a lot like you’re breaking up with me so…”

“No, don’t put this on me.”

“Why not?” snapped Keith. “You put literally everything else on me so if you really believe I’ve been that terrible –”

“Don’t do that, Keith,” cried Lance. “Don’t reduce what I said to some simplistic sound-byte that paints you in some emo light so you can go off and sulk about how I was mean to you.”

“No, I’m just going to go sulk about how I thought I made you happy, but really I’ve been making you miserable.” Keith lay his hand on Kosmo and ZAP! He was gone. Lance had a moment to feel shocked by the sudden departure, but then ZAP! He was back. “And for the record, I wanted to say those words to you too when it felt right, but now that I know what a terrible job I was doing of loving you, I’m obviously not going to say it.” 

Lance was stunned. “Keith…” No, no, no, Lance take it back. Take it all back! Open your mouth and say something.

Keith took a ragged breath then said, “You were my home, but I guess it makes sense that I don’t actually belong anywhere.” ZAP!

Lance was mad Keith had made the end of their argument all about him again. He was disappointed he’d taken so much of what he’d said the wrong way. He was sad they’d broken up. Mostly though, he was heartbroken Keith still didn’t see how much he belonged with all of them.

He almost went to the cockpit to say as much over the comlink. Almost… The idea of waking everyone up so he could once again comfort Keith held him back. Instead Lanced cried himself to sleep. He would need his rest before his performance the next day. The one where he pretended to be the easy going Paladin that was always there to crack jokes and make everyone else smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SUBSCRIBERS and other such READERS: This is the end of this work, but the first chapter in its sequel will be posted in the next day or two. The third work in the Beef Keef and Sharpshooter series which will be titled Beef or Target Lock. As a subscriber to this work, unfortunately, you won't be notified when the next work goes up. Please subscribe to the actual series so you don't miss out https://archiveofourown.org/series/1159664 OR you can subscribe to me as a User. Either of these steps will get you a notification for when the next part has begun. Thank you so so much for reading along!
> 
> BBBK xoxoxox


End file.
